Damietta — A women-friendly space was opened in Ezbet El Borg city in Damietta, 200km north of Cairo, with the aim of creating a decent space for women and girls in the community, the Embassy of The Netherlands said in a statement on Sunday.
The space was designed and developed using a participatory and gender-responsive approach to empower women and girls through providing opportunities for economic empowerment while encouraging women’s leadership and participation in public life.
The new space was renovated through a partnership between the National Council for Women, the Damietta Governorate, and UN Women Egypt, with the support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Located some 15 kilometres northeast of Damietta, the women-friendly space in Ezbet El Borg is designed to be an inclusive and accessible public area for community projects and a space for local women entrepreneurs to showcase their products and market them to the local community of Ezbet El Borg, and to the general public visiting the Misr Public Library, which the space surrounds, the statement added.
The space was designed based on a community needs assessment and through a participatory approach involving women and men from the local community, and the integration of the principles of gender equality and the empowerment of women, it added.
The project not only serves the local community’s need for a public area, where women and girls are safe and have access to expanded social and economic opportunities but is also a platform for supporting transformative change by promoting respectful gender relationships in public spaces, according to the statement.
The opening was attended by Dr. Maya Morsy, President of the National Council for Women; Dr. Manal Awad, Damietta Governor; Ms. Christine Arab, UN Women Country Representative; Christian Berger, Ambassador of the European Union in Egypt and Mr. Wierish Ramsoekh, Chargé d’affaires of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Egypt.
