Nihal Mahmoud-Sheta a founding member of Nahdet El Mansouria for Development Foundation, raised a whopping 4 million EGP in funds for Palestine.
Mahmoud-Sheta wanted to help the crisis in any way, and that came to life in the form of a fundraising event titled “For You, Palestine (Alashanek Ya Felesteen).”
“We all felt that we wanted to help with what’s happening in Gaza,” Mahmoud-Sheta told ELLE, “A lot of artists wanted to help, but they didn’t know how to. We offered them an opportunity to contribute. It started rolling from there, one person after the other, and then galleries, Safar Khan, and Motion Gallery. It happened very quickly, in three weeks we had it up and running.”
NIHAL MAHMOUD-SHETA: “I CONSIDER IT PART OF MY SPIRITUAL WORK”
The fundraiser took place at Arkan Mall in Sheikh Zayed, Cairo, and featured over 100 donated art pieces, “It couldn’t have happened alone. Everybody wanted to help, you could tell there was a lot of energy that was directed in wanting to do something. The artists donated 100% of their work, Arkan donated 100% of the space. Even the people who helped with set-up and security didn’t expect anything back.”
The donations were then allocated into one of three pathways: Ahl Masr Foundation for medical supplies, the Egyptian Food Bank for food, and The Rottery to fund the Palestinian students living in Egypt, “What was nice is that you’d go to the event and buy a painting, and then you could choose which charity the money went to.”
“Gazans suffering from the war have entered Egypt needing medical support. Many have lost their limbs and we are trying to help as much as we can with providing them with artificial legs or arms as we are working with a company called Orthomedics.” Mahmoud-Sheta tells us.
Mahmoud-Sheta finds philanthropy a healing practice, “I’ve been doing this since a very young age, it balances me out as a person. I consider it part of my spiritual work,” She added, “I feel very strongly about trying to serve people if it’s within my capacity. It makes me more mentally and physically balanced.”
