Sponsors, Collaborators and Organisers

Sponsors

1. The Netherlands Embasssy
2. Movies that Matter
3. UNICEF works for children's rights, their survival, development and protection and are partner ing us for the film making workshop.
4. Gothe Institute
5. CMRS Centre for Migration and Refugee Studies under the AUC
6. Cairo To Camps

Collaborators

1. Tadamon-Egyptian Refugee Multicultural Council-an independent, non-political network of civil society organisations working to promote the welfare of refugees and their mutual co-existence with Egyptians through information sharing and coordination of cooperative efforts.
2. Student Action for Refugees (STAR) is a student-run organization at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Their primary mission is to provide support to refugees of all nationalities in Cairo. One of the ways they do this is by organising accessible, affordable arts and language (English and Arabic) classes for Cairo's refugee population in accordance with the principle that access to education is a basic right guaranteed by international human rights law.

Organizers

1. Mahmoud Farag: Community Outreach Team Leader, Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA)
2. Mai Choucri: Community Outreach Coordinator, Tadamon.
3. Marwa Fikry: Psychology student at the American University in Cairo and Vice President of STAR (Student Action for Refugees)
4. Naseem Hashim: Administrative associate, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
5. Reem Abbas: Broadcast Journalism student at the American University in Cairo.
6. Sankalita Shome: Legal advisor with the Resettlement Legal Aid Project (RLAP) at Saint Andrews Refugee Services
7. Sara Sadek: Researcher and Consultant on Forced Migration and Refugee issues
8. Shaima Yehia: Coordinator at the Arab Digital Expression Camp (ADEC)
9. Shubra Ohri: Researcher at the Ibn Khaldun Center and a legal advisor at the Resettlement Legal Aid Project at St. Andrews Refugees Services
   

Rationale For The Festival

What happens when a group of eclectic individuals made up of humanitarians, lawyers, members of civil society and students who all have in common a concern for the refugees’ well being in Egypt come together?

The outcome is Cairo Refugee Film Festival, to be held from June 16 to June 20 at the Rawabet theatre in downtown. The festival, the first of its kind in the region, is a celebration of the power of the human spirit and the courage of refugees from all around the world.

Considering that Egypt is home to a significant refugee population, hailing from all across Africa and the Middle East, a festival of such a kind is extremely relevant and provides a platform to bring together local Egyptians and refugees. The Cairo Refugee Film Festival, held in commemoration of the World Refugee Day, seeks to chronicle the lives, struggles, and achievements of refugee populations around the world from the 1930s to the present day. We aspire to break the Egyptian myth that the refugee movement is an Afro-centric problem and that refugees are always African. Through the medium of film, we aim to sensitize the Egyptian community on refugees’ stories, obstacles and resilience.

Why a Film Festival?

Films give a voice to the voiceless; they can evoke strong emotions and break down barriers. The films for the festival will focus on the narratives of different refugee populations to educate, enlighten and inspire empathy. The audio-visual medium of films will attract journalists, intellectuals, artists and general audiences to attend the functions of the festival and interact with

Background and Introduction

In the last three decades, Egypt has become host to refugees fleeing conflicts and persecution in Africa, Asia and Middle East. Many refugees have made Egypt their home and various refugee communities live amongst Egyptian, contributing to the Egyptian society. Though Sudanese are considered to be the largest refugee population, there are also large numbers of Somalis, Eritreans, Ethiopians, North Africans, and even more from Central and West Africa as also Iraqis. Refugees from the Middle and Far East also seek asylum in Egypt. In addition, there are an estimated 70,000 Palestinians. These refugees are often falsely identified as economic migrants, rather than a vulnerable population who fled their homelands due to political unrests and violence.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the main body handling refugee affairs in Egypt in the sense of granting protection, services and other procedural issues. Recognized refugees are offered one of three durable solutions for their refugee status:

1. Resettlement to another country
2. local integration in the country of first asylum (Egypt) or
3. support for voluntary repatriation to the country of origin.

Resettlement as solution is only available to the most vulnerable of the refugees and with civil war and unrest having become second nature; repatriation is almost never the solution to most refugees. Since the vast majority of refugees will never be resettled, integration in Egypt is of great concern and the need of the hour. This is possible only when when the misconceptions between the host communities and the refugee communities are cleared and an appreciation and understanding of the others' circumstances is fostered.

Against this backdrop and with a view to bring the refugee and the egyptian communities together, the idea of a film festival took birth.