McDonald’s campaign for the development of Ezbet Khairallah, which was launched by Manfoods – McDonald’s Egypt, managed to collect 10 million EGP which was allocated to develop the educational system in Ezbet Khairallah located in Dar El Salam and El Basaten region in Cairo. The campaign was launched in line with the company’s strategic and sustainable corporate social responsibility plan in order develop and enhance communities that McDonald’s operates in.
Alaa Fathy – the General Manager of Manfoods Egypt- said, “The Company’s strategy is to focus on developing the education in regions that need it the most, hence we started with Ezbet Khairallah. We chose Ezbet Khairallah specifically as it is considered one of the largest slums in Egypt with an estimated population of 650 thousand, where it lacks the basic services and facilities. As a consequent of these poor circumstances, children who are living there are denied from having a proper equipped place for education unlike children in other areas of Egypt. Thus, we took upon ourselves the responsibility of this mission and succeeded in refurbishing 20 nurseries and 10 schools, where we started with the toilets and electricity and ended with the school uniforms and stationary. Furthermore, the company focused on improving the quality of education through training and educating nursery and school teachers. Additionally, awareness sessions have been conducted for more than 7,000 mothers to increase their awareness on general healthcare and motherhood aspects.”
He also added that “collecting donations worth 10 million EGP is a living proof of the remarkable achievements that have been achieved in Ezbet Khairallah.”
In this context, Mr Alaa thanked all those who have participated in making this dream come true and developing Ezbet Khairallah, whether through the buying of happy meals or directly donating to the donation boxes. He assured that this campaign is dedicated from children who love happy meals to children living in Ezbet Khairallah, which reflects the positive collaboration that exists between all members across different communities of the Egyptian society.
It is worth mentioning that the donations were collected through two main sources. 3 million EGP were collected through the donation boxes that were placed in all McDonald’s branches across all governorates. As for the second source, 7 million EGP were collected by allocating 25 piasters from each happy meal sold to this campaign. The funding strategy aimed at forming a collective collaboration between the private sector, public sector and NGO’s. Mr Fathy also stated that the company is very proud with all the achievements it has accomplished and the multiple challenges it has overcome throughout the project.
Furthermore, McDonald’s did not only develop the educational system in Ezbet Khairallah; but also dealt with it as a community that has its own needs and thus has provided it with permanent job opportunities for its citizens. McDonald’s provided job opportunities for mothers by allowing them to sew the school and nursery uniforms, in addition to providing jobs for the carpenters and skilled workers, where they refurbished and worked on developing the school classes. McDonald’s foremost aim is providing permanent job opportunities for the citizens of Ezbet Khairallah instead of having them to work on temporary projects.
