Martyria Foundation for Culture and Development is a non-profit organisation founded in 2019 and operating in Egypt. It offers a unique educational experience for youth in communities seeking development. It does so by providing the best sustainable solutions with passion, trust, and creativity and training future leaders with the best development strategies to lead change.
Martyria focuses on social empowerment and equality of all individuals, especially marginalised and vulnerable groups.
Among the organisation’s core beliefs is that a well-equipped and developed personality opens more doors and empowers more people to be eligible for available chances and know how to achieve them. As such, Martyria works in a unique and special area: capacity building and soft skills development, in addition to technical skills, to help youth get better chances.
Martyria aims to enhance human capital and invest in it to empower vulnerable groups and improve their quality of life. That is why the foundation focuses on the youth’s education and capacity-building, providing them with different courses and training.
The activities and initiatives carried out by Martyria are numerous, but they can be grouped into three main clusters:
- Providing courses: Martyria offers youth courses to equip them for their careers and help them with their self-awareness and development (i.e. Digital Marketing, preparing for the IELTS, Korean language, LinkedIn courses, etc.)
- Cooperating with Aflatoun: caring fro improving the lives of less privileged groups, Martyria aims to improve social skills and financial literacy to help people better manage their lives and finances, and make informed choices. Martyria started a partnership with Aflatoun in March 2024 and started implementing the programme within two pre-existing initiatives.
- Sharing the Life Initiative: this activity aims to teach youth about social responsibility, cooperation, and helping others. Martyria initiated fun days in public schools where students from international/private schools participated in organising engaging activities and presenting their schools to the younger kids.
Our Partnership
When Martyria embraced social and financial education, they decided to introduce it in schools to reach a wider target group and implement the programme in the early education years. The recent partnership with Aflatoun International allowed them to implement the Social and Financial Education (SFE) programme in private formal institutes.
Getting involved in an educational institution and providing the AflaTeen programme is a great start for the foundation to engage school students and enhance their financial literacy skills.
The decision to partner with Aflatoun came from a wish to have more support when implementing SFE in schools, especially considering Aflatoun’s expertise in offering curricula that are age-appropriate and tailored to the context and local needs.
Currently, Martyria is implementing AflaTeen, AflaYouth, and AflaTot.
Martyria believes in the importance of financial awareness, especially for the youth who are starting their life and need solid financial awareness and empowerment to build their future. In countries where income levels are limited, personal finances need to be utilised efficiently, unemployment levels are high, and the educational systems usually do not match the job market, the need for financial education is even greater.
Moreover, the Egyptian educational system does not offer social, financial, or entrepreneurship curricula except for higher degree programmes. They also believe that providing youth with social skills makes them more self-aware and active members of society, in addition to empowering them to lead their future.
Finally, entrepreneurship is an important aspect that helps youth start their own businesses, participate in economic growth, raise their income, efficiently use the money/resources they have, and supply the market with the needed projects and businesses. This is very helpful in areas where unemployment rates are high and educational levels are low.
That is why Martyria hopes to be a learning hub for Aflatoun and spread social and financial awareness in the communities they serve.
The AflaTot Summer Camp
To start delivering the AflaTot programme, Martyria hosted a 2-week summer camp for kids aged 4-6 (school students in their kindergarten years). Martyria adopted the AflaTot curriculum, merged it and arranged it within a full-day programme for two weeks. The organisation also supported the curriculum content with multiple crafts, games, videos, and other activities, such as cooking. The workshops were divided into different topics so each day had a topic and theme. The camp was very successful, and the kids grasped the materials well. The next step is to deliver them to other institutions serving children.