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Tens of thousands of women are sent to prison in Egypt every year. Their crime? Not being able to repay loans borrowed for amounts of only a few hundred dollars.
These women are known simply as “Al Gharemaat” or “The Fined”. The money they borrow goes to pay for medicine, emergencies, children’s education etc. However, the consequences of not settling back their loans are devastating and lead to significant prison sentences.
Horizon FCB decided to raise awareness about this issue and launched the ‘Breakchains with Blockchain’ intiative.
Inspired by the reasons that cause Egypt's female debtors’ imprisonment, the agency decided to launch a collection of NFTs. Designed by international artists, each tells a woman’s story, the story of why she got sentenced. Each NFT is priced at the amount equal to the cost needed to be freed from prison and grab a second chance at life.
Reham Mufleh, General Manager of Horizon FCB Dubai, commented: “This is one of these moments when you fall in love with your job all over again, when you see how creativity, data & technology can change people’s lives for the better!
Such a passion project. When we first started working on it, it was just another job. But the more we learnt about this issue, the more we wanted to help & the more we wanted to give. And every time we faced a hurdle, we never gave up, we just kept going until we freed the first three women from their debt. This is a feeling you can never put a label on”.
Mazen Jawad, CEO of Horizon Holdings, added “helping others in need hasn’t changed. Our Never Finished approach has changed. Learning about this social issue created a disruption in us to stop and think… but listening to the heart-breaking stories of those women was enough to trigger creativity, effort, engagement and commitment from the whole agency feeling a sense of responsibility and commitment to enable change. Bringing data, creativity and technology together in a perfect equilibrium to enable freedom for those women to unite them back with their families and loved ones was priceless”.
The ‘Breakchains with Blockchain’ was launched on Mother’s Day in Egypt (21 March). On this very day, three mothers were actually released with funds raised from the NFTs, sold.
One of these women is “Rabia”. Her story is that upon the passing of her sister, and in order to honor her memory she had to take a loan to pay her daughter’s wedding.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer she was too unwell to work and make the payments, she was arrested and sentenced to 2 years in prison. The amount she borrowed totalled USD$254.
“Children of Female Prisoners Association” is one of the most active NGOs in Egypt working with Al Gharemaat and their children. It was founded in 1990 by Nawal Mustafa, winner of the "Hope Maker" award from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Working in partnership with Horizon FCB Dubai, together they are raising donations and awareness of this issue around the world, by utilizing a medium that has been gaining great hype recently, NFTs.
Of course there are more women who need to be freed, but even when they are all released the work must remain on-going so to ensure women in Egypt have the resources and education they need until the Al Gharemaat become a thing of the past.
Hopefully such a campaign will gain enough power to change the difficult situation on the ground.
Credits
Client - Children of Female Prisoners Association
Founder & CEO - Nawal Mostafa
Director of Communications - Nader Eissa
Social Worker - Hafza Obied
Agency - Horizon FCB Dubai:
CEO Horizon Holdings – Mazen Jawad
General Manager – Reham Mufleh
Executive Creative Director - Rodrigo Leal Rodrigues
Associate Creative Director - Jonathan Cruz
Senior Art Director - Zayd Abidi
Senior Arabic Copywriter - Bassam Doss
Senior Copywriter - Lucy Elder
Associate Creative Director - Antonio Cue
Traffic Manager – Rosemarie Jimenez
Senior Video Editor - Anthony Heneine
Video Editor and Motion Designer - Alman Magpusao
Sarah Nasser – Account Director
Motion Graphics – Sachin Jain
Diogo Borges – Technologist
NFT Artists: Hannah Prado; Miguel Karbage; Fady Youssef Rofaeel; Steafanus/Rondon Fernades; Douglas Reis; Stefanus; Rodrigo Nuig; Paulo de Almeida
Production:
Production House: Film DNA
Director: Dina Abdelraheem
Executive Producer: Dina Abdelraheem & Nour Abdelraheem
DP: Ahmed Hamdi
Directors Producer: Dahlia Galal
Production: Mina Maher and Hatem Samir
Photographer: Abdelrahman Ibrahim
Gaffer: Eshta
Equipment: Haytham El Said
Sound Eng: Mostafa Metwally
Horizon FCB Dubai & Film DNA: Hani Osama
Post Production: Cult
Editor: Samir Radwan
Post Producer: Hazem helmy
Thanks to budist
A Special Thanks to Adham El sherief
Music Production: Vox Haus
Head of Projects: Matheus Gugelmim
Head of Music Production / Audio Mix: Daniel Dalla Corte
Music/SFX Producer: Icaro Guedes
Music/SFX Producer: Cassio Machado
