It’s no secret that Egypt has been suffering from a myriad of problems over the past few decades, including a broken education system, environmental problems related to waste management and energy generation, the infamous sexual harassment issue, a deteriorating health sector and a struggling economy, to name a few.

 

While these challenges are known to the man of the street and have been repeatedly and heavily discussed in television, talk shows, inside university classrooms and within scholarly groups, no concrete actions were taken towards solving them.

 

Following the 25th of Jan. 2011, the post-revolution euphoria swept across Egypt, giving the youth, who were continuously marginalized from the decision-making arenas, a hope for a better representation and wider opportunities for participation in reforming the country’s unsatisfactory socio-economic state.

 

“The recent uprisings were not just a rejection of leaders. They were a rejection of an archaic and dysfunctional social contract that left citizens dependent on their states,” according to Director of the Middle East and North Africa Center for International Private Enterprise Abdulwahab Alkebsi.

 

As the time went on, the euphoria faded and the government pressed ahead with silencing voices of dissenters and those people calling for reforms. Public platforms were closed again. The youth, who make up one third of the population, were again stripped of their dreams of change.

 

Instead of standing still, youth started to take small steps to tackle these chronic social problems through social enterprises. The projects can be tracked through the past decade, but they have exploded following the revolution.

 

A considerable portion of the younger generation, who were continuously seen as a burden instead of a valuable asset, has channeled their energies towards social issues. Some believed that reforms have to start from the social sphere: voices calling for change must echo across different economic sectors. Others found social enterprises their only way to make a difference. Some, simply, embraced social entrepreneurship as a path towards employment. Consequently, a significant portion of the younger generation has decided to launch enterprises. Usually, they work at the grassroots levels; segments that are often ignored by the government.

 

Every Egyptian knows that the country’s education system is outdated, produces millions of youths who are unskilled, unprepared and ill-equipped for the labor market. Yasmin Helal took it upon herself to address the issue. In late 2010, she founded Educate-Me with the mission of providing innovative educational opportunities to underserved children in underprivileged communities, through a model that puts skills and values over knowledge and repetition.

 

Moreover, while the Egyptian government has been pushing to pass a decree allowing for the importation of electricity-generation coal, which led to sign two contracts with Chinese corporates; in 2012, a group of young Egyptians launched ICECAIRO, which tries to turn environmental and social challenges into opportunities for green business. Likewise, Karm Solar, a solar technology and integration project, was established in 2011 to provide innovative solar solutions to the country’s different sectors as well as an alternative source of power to diesel operated generators in remote environments.

 

 

Amid continuous exclusion for the disabled in Egypt, who accounts to around 12 million of Egypt’s 90 million population, Helm was founded in 2010 to assist persons with disabilities towards employment and accessibility.

 

However, the path of social entrepreneurship in Egypt isn’t as easy as it might seem. Some of these enterprises, like Tahrir Academy, were forced to shut down for various reasons. Chiefly, the absence of solid funding opportunities in the country.

 

It is clear that social entrepreneurship enabled youth to shift from being passive demanders to becoming part of the solution. However, in order to create a long-lasting social change, we need to broaden and widen the impact base. Enterprises must less isolated, get together and overcome the limits of a micro-economy scale.

 

As the rulers continue to reject any calls for reform, social entrepreneurship appears to be the youth’s smartest weapon towards inducing a citizen-led change. According to professor Alex Nicholls, social enterprises are not simply a “mechanism to fix malfunctions in existing…systems” but rather a “challenge to their continued existence as static institutions”.  “Entrepreneurs are revolutionaries because they use economic freedom to challenge existing economic, social, and political structures,” as famously venture capital pioneer Franklin Pitcher Johnson said once.

 

These young entrepreneurs have the potential for developing local, sustainable solutions and influencing the upcoming generations. They, intentionally or unintentionally, are planting strong seeds. These seeds will eventually reach to the fibers of the society. They can build new grounds. They play a pivotal role in reshaping and transforming the public sphere, slowly but steadily.