Hisham El Rouby is Synergos’ regional director in the Arab World, focusing particularly on our promotion of social entrepreneurship. He is also founder of ETIJAH Youth and Development Consultancy Institute, a Synergos Senior Fellow, and an Ashoka Fellow.
Mr. El Rouby is working to help young Egyptians develop technical and leadership skills and become effective contributors to society by providing them with volunteer and job opportunities. He founded ETIJAH as a specialized institute to contribute to the development and dissemination of community-development methodologies, especially those related to youth development. The institute works directly with young people, in addition to governmental and non-governmental youth-serving organizations. ETIJAH’s primary concern is to create and tailor up-to-date development methodologies, research tools, applicable practices of youth development, and training-delivery models in all spheres related to community and youth development, whether social, economical, educational, or cultural, throughout Egypt and the Arab world. Mr. El Rouby is keen to adapt methodologies that comply with Egyptian and Arab world cultures and traditions.
Mr. El Rouby is also a cofounder and the chairperson of Youth Association for Population and Development (YAPD), the first youth organization in Egypt, and now a leading youth organization throughout Egypt.
Mr. El Rouby founded the Egyptian Volunteer Center (EVC) in 2000 to introduce volunteerism to the development movement by matching young people with volunteer opportunities at organizations and companies. He designed a national database in which companies and organizations post openings for volunteers and interns. Through the Labor Horizons program, volunteers also receive training in skills such as resume-writing and public speaking.
Mr. El Rouby also founded the BADER volunteers program in 150 schools all over Egypt in partnership with the Ministry of Education. He works in partnership with employers, civil-society organizations, and government officials to disseminate the programs throughout Egypt. Currently, the database has 200,000 volunteers and more than 600 organizations.
Mr. El Rouby has worked with the Near East Foundation in Cairo and the European Union in community development and youth development. He has also written scripts for television programs for nonprofits, as well as several manuals and books for UNICEF and the World Bank on subjects such as volunteer management, youth development, civic education, and life skills. He also currently serves as the Synergos Arab World Social Innovators Representative for Egypt, Lebanon, and Morocco.