The Humanity Project 1

I was sitting in my brother’s apartment in Maadi trying to work but my watch kept buzzing with notifications. Ahmed and his wife Mariam traveled to France last week , but we have been using their house as a work-base while the kids were at their Tawasol camp in Ezzbet Kheirallah. 

Typically, I’m naturally gifted at ignoring notifications. Especially ones from numbers I don’t recognize, which this one was. But lately I’ve been finding them harder to ignore. Ever since I’ve started receiving messages from Palestinians requesting assistance. When it first started happening, I wondered how they got my number. My hunch was it was somehow related to the Humanity Project group.

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There are a million-and-one other informal piecemeal efforts trying to directly assist Palestinians who were able to cross into Egypt. The efforts include helping with money, food, clothes, housing, medical care, jobs, schools, etc. All the mundane day-to-day things that are part of those Palestinians’ “day-after” reality in Egypt. Those efforts are typically done person-to-person and as such are often effective for the person/family in question though not wide-reaching.

The Humanity Project began like many of those worthwhile but limited-impact efforts.  It started shortly after October 7^th as a WhatsApp group of Cairo residents – some foreign, some Egyptian - who were trying to coordinate people’s one-on-one efforts. People posted announcements like this:

Free pharmacy available to those without means, including Palestinians, from 12-5pm everyday but Saturday.

Palestinian fundraising event happening this Friday in Heliopolis, please share.

This family found an apartment to rent in shobra but it’s not furnished, we’re looking for people to donate a fridge, oven, and beds or mattresses.

This couple used to teach English in Gaza and are looking for similar work here, DM if you have any leads.

We need volunteers to help deliver these food boxes next Friday at 2 pm.

There is a Palestinian restaurant that just opened in Dokki, here’s the location.

This family needs formula milk that’s not available in Egypt. If you’re coming from the US to Egypt in the next few days, contact me.

It was also a place for people to ask their questions.

A family is about to be evicted because they can’t pay their rent, can anyone help?

Does anyone know if there are any banks that allow Palestinians to open bank accounts without needing residency?

Does anyone know translators to add captions to Palestinians’ testimony-videos?

A mother needs help with residency paperwork, volunteers?

The initiative was supremely helpful for ramping up the efficiency of those on the ground needing to coordinate (individuals, grassroots, NGOs, businesses), but still ran into limitations when it tried to scale-up its efforts to match the swelling number of Palestinians.

One of the first problems was reaching Palestinians.

Once they safely cross, Palestinians are understandably disoriented, strapped for cash, and don’t even know where to go. Naturally, they would ask those who happen to be in their proximity for guidance. Then those ask others who ask others so on and so forth. Each person tapping their network of friends, until they find someone who may or may not ultimately be helpful. If one of those contacted happened to be with the Humanity Project or any of the other grassroots efforts, the likelihood of that Palestinian finding genuine assistance spikes.

But the chances of that Palestinian establishing contact with these efforts were erratic at best. Worse, they could just as easily fall prey to swindlers who could use their plight to milk them - and others wanting to help - dry. I think the Humanity Project initiative quickly realized that this was a priority:  how can the Humanity Project more reliably establish first contact with as many Palestinians in Egypt as possible?

One idea seemed simple and obvious: establish a fixed point of contact that Palestinians can be guided to for reliable assistance. Like an embassy. The formal Palestinian Embassy is all but useless. And no other official Egyptian entity currently serves that role. So. High-demand. Low-to-no supply. Obvious gap. Worth pursuing. But. To pursue it effectively they need funds. Can’t safely collect funds in Egypt unless they’re a formal entity.

And so it was that the Humanity Project evolved from a group of ragtag do-gooders into a formally registered NGO capable of raising donations to initiate their first major project: establishing Family Support Centers across Egypt, led by hired Palestinians to serve other Palestinians.

Tangible. Straightforward. Brilliant.

Though the trajectory of how I imagine they got to where they are seems obvious to me now, it wasn’t always. I was slightly confused as to what it was this Humanity Project group was doing and sometimes felt ambivalent about whether it was worthwhile. Mariam, my sister-in-law was the one who first introduced me to it. Back in March or April.

I followed the announcements as best I could and helped in the ways I could while abroad. Shared my dad and my brother’s – both ophthalmologists - contact information for people needing eye assessments or surgeries. Shared event announcements. Nothing mind-blowing. I mostly followed in silence.

One day after being offline for a while, I checked the group and found a series of rent-assistance requests. I wanted to help, but I couldn’t really afford to donate meaningful amounts to everyone. And how was I supposed to pick? I felt guilty and frustrated. And that particular day, I don’t know what possessed me to abruptly articulate a thought that had occurred to me many times before but I had never thought to pose it as a question on the group.

The question went something like this. “All these Palestinians are only needing to collect this money because companies like Argany’s Hala are charging them absurd amounts for passage and no one is stopping them? Why aren’t we trying to stop Argany from doing that in the first place?” Some part of me knew the question was naïve but I was also genuinely curious about why we were ignoring that reality. Many of these families lived comfortable lives in Gaza and were only reduced to destitution in Egypt because their savings were drained by the exorbitant amounts they were being charged. To me, it felt like watching water gushing out of a broken faucet. We were all trying to get cups and jugs and containers to save the water from being wasted. And those are good instincts and certainly better than standing idly by. But why wasn’t someone also trying to fix the faucet?

I’m not sure what I was hoping would happen. But the two things that did happen, caught me off-guard.

First, a Palestinian woman still in Gaza reproached me for my question: “do I need to explain to you what we’re facing here in Gaza” she wrote. I think she thought I was saying that we shouldn’t donate money. But I wasn’t. I understand that this is the reality on the ground and putting aside the question of who is creating this monetary burden on Palestinians in the first place and why, we weren’t going to just pause the reality of Palestinians trying to flee war and reflect on the nebulous idea of how to stop arguably the most powerful man in Egypt. No. I just meant, in addition to. Alongside. Is anyone even talking about stopping the source of this additional misery? Israel is doing the indiscriminate killing and devastating destruction, but what was Argany and his cronies doing? What was Sisi and his government doing to stop Argany? Argany was not only making it much more difficult for Palestinians to get out, he was also robbing them of the ability to live with dignity after fleeing. And for what. Money? I found that so disgustingly painful it bruised my soul. At any rate, her and I moved the conversation privately and cleared the misunderstanding.

The second thing that caught me off-guard was when another woman – I think Egyptian – politely but curtly said “I don’t think it’s safe or appropriate to discuss these topics here, as it goes against the group rules and purpose” and then she tagged the admin. At that point, I actually didn’t know that there was a no-politics policy. I didn’t even think of what I was asking as political, though I recognize in retrospect that it was (I guess?).  Either way, I said as much (not the self-doubting, self-reflecting part) and immediately apologized, and then asked anyone interested in pursuing this further to DM me. Very quickly though someone else jumped in with an existential question wondering what the group purpose even was and whether the group has lost its way. And again the admin was tagged.  At this point the administrator interjected saying that “nothing should be discussed in this group except work on the ground in Cairo” and that “there is to be no political talk in here. This is the kind of thing that not only distracts us from the work, but it can get us into trouble. This is an open WhatsApp group so use your heads please people”. My original message was deleted and then I was removed from the group. Or at least I think they tried to remove me but accidentally removed someone else with a similar name.

Ouch.

I felt supremely stupid. The admin was right. What was I thinking throwing around Argany’s name on a nascent open-group trying to help Palestinians on the ground, is likely monitored by general intelligence, and could easily be shutdown if it was perceived to go beyond the social work boundaries it had very intentionally set for itself. But part of me also felt defensive. And furious. They were polite but also very swift and brutal in their judgement.

In retrospect, I think maybe I was hoping someone would say “yeah there is this group that is working on that issue” and I would join them. Or if there wasn’t a group, we would start one and brainstorm ideas of how to disrupt Argany’s business. I would bet that most of the people on that group, including the admins, felt the same way I did but had enough sense to self-censor so that they would be allowed to help in the ways they can. Because if they’re shut down then even less is being done to help. And we’re back to the ad-hoc square-one efforts.

This episode made me lose my bearings a bit. What was “real” help anyway? I can click on a button and donate money and pat myself on the back for doing the right thing. Nothing major. Zero risk to me and mine. Helpful to the receiver. In the short-term at least. Was that so bad? Not at all. But why was I having a hard time with it? I think because it didn’t feel like I was doing enough. It was too convenient and cost me nothing but money. Felt like a cop-out. Felt like giving up.

But then again, the response I got for wondering if there was something else we can be doing made me question my motivations. Maybe I was only attracted to the grandiosity of the idea that we can actually stop Argany when the real helpful thing to do was all the nonglamorous work that they were already doing. Boxing up food donations. Helping someone find an apartment. Was I judging the critical help they were providing as misguided? I didn’t think so but maybe. I know that part of me thinks it’s reactionary. It’s critical but it’s not addressing the root of the problem. It’s making the best of a really bad situation. And if that’s not the “right” type of help then I don’t know what is.

After that interaction, I completely shut up on the group. That was when I started getting messages from Palestinians. Mostly needing help with rent in Egypt.

So, I ignored the broken faucet and decided if that was what was needed, and if that was all I could do, I will just do it.

This is part 1 of a two-part piece.