CAIRO - The phones never stop ringing at the Arab Medical Association. On a desk inside one of the rooms at the association sits the head of the Humanitarian Section, Ibrahim el-Zaafarani, giving callers the details of the bank account they should send their charitable donations to. The association has set up this bank account for donations for Somalia, a country hit by its most devastating drought in years. “The conditions for the Somalis are intolerable,” el-Zaafarani told the Egyptian Mail. “The world needs to take swift action or we will end up having a real humanitarian catastrophe in this poor African country.” Although Egypt's economy might be passing through its toughest test in years, this has done nothing to prevent the Egyptians from helping people in other countries. A massive humanitarian campaign is taking place here to help Somalia, thousands of miles away, by providing food, medicines and even water for a population hard hit by famine. Egyptians have been asking each other to donate money to reduce the severity of the famine in Somalia, while almost every official organisation has its own campaign to help the stricken East African country. The humanitarian effort for the sake of the Somalia has got everybody involved, from members of the ruling military council, to actors and artists, cyberspace activists, ordinary people and the nation's most senior men of religion. So far, el-Zaafarani's association has sent 100 doctors to Somalia. They give medical treatment to hundreds of people in central and southern Somalia everyday. It has also dispatched water experts to dig wells in different areas. “Many Somali children are suffering from severe dehydration and are in desperate need of water,” el-Zaafarani said. “Adult Somalis are also in desperate need of food, vitamins and medication.” But the work of humanitarian actors like el-Zaafarani would be almost impossible without the help provided by the nation's bloggers and cyberspace activists. Tens of activists have created special web and social media pages to invite Egyptians to contribute money to a major campaign to deliver aid to the people of Somalia. The bloggers and activists use touching language, sometimes religious, sometimes emotional, to convince their compatriots to donate money. And the campaign is paying off in delightful ways. One of these bloggers is Mariam Dawoud, a 23-year-old unemployed tour guide, who together with her friends has created a special Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184848004921739) to collect money for the Somalis. Mariam had always believed in the power of social media, but never expected the reaction to her page to be so huge. “People from everywhere started calling me to donate money as soon as we started the campaign,” she says. “There is real suffering in Somalia and the Egyptians are very sympathetic.” Mariam doesn't have a financial limit for her campaign. Neither does she know how much her campaign has managed to raise so far, because she asks donors to send their donations to the special bank account set up for Somalia themselves. “But I know that the reaction has been great,” she says. “The campaign will continue to be active as long as there is hunger in Somalia.” Another campaign (https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184848004921739) invites people to send empty text messages to a certain number, while the cost of the messages gets channelled to the Somalia bank account. Unrelenting labour unrest and deteriorating security conditions have rendered the Egyptian economy semi-dysfunctional. The caretaker Government is desperate for $5 billion from Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to bridge a yawning budget deficit. Bread and other food riots are becoming common on the streets of this country as well, while strikes by schoolteachers, doctors and public transport drivers seem to have brought life here to a complete halt. Despite this, Egyptians are still willing to help their African brothers. The money these people donate ends up, among other places, at the Arab Medical Association, which has managed to dig 15 wells in central and southern Somalia so far, at a cost of $100,000 per well. The association has also managed to send rice, sugar, milk and beef worth $500,000, according to Shawqi el-Haddad, another senior member of the association, as well as 3,000 tonnes of vitamins and medicines, including drugs for heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes. Now, the Arab Medical Association wants to collect an additional $2 million to buy more food and medicines. To do this, it is encouraging cyberspace activists to use yet more innovative tools to convince Egyptians to donate money to Somalia. “Social media are very important,” says Ahmed Tawfiq, a medical doctor who created one of the earliest Facebook pages to highlight the sufferings of the Somalis. “Everybody should know that the price of one of their meals can make a Somali live well for a whole week. Is it difficult for any of us to donate the price of one meal?”
