History

YWCA is a non-profit organization, which founded its Egyptian Branch in 1909. It aims at empowering women, promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. YWCA has numerous projects and activities in Egypt to achieve its mission.

In 1922, YWCA handed out pamphlets announcing the introduction of a summer camp for girls in Alexandria. This summer camp was on a beachfront site in El Mandara, and included activities such as swimming, park picnics and sail-boat cruises. It had room for 14 campers and cost 200 piasters per week, with an additional 25 piasters as a registration fee.

Even though the campsite was not luxurious; it had wooden huts, was lit by oil lamps at night, and water would be brought in on camels, the summer camp quickly gained acclaim and became a popular destination for young girls, who spend their summer vacation there.

In 1930, the beachfront campsite was demolished to make way for the Corniche road. Ms. Gabriel, the Secretary General of the YWCA, started looking for alternate locations, and for the summers of 1931 and 32, the camps were held at two different locations; Abu Qir and Gelim, each facing some difficulties.

YWCA purchased a new plot of land back in El Mandara in 1932, this time however, it was a bit further from the beach. The new campsite had an area of 1000 m², the land cost 20 piasters/m² and was paid in full by donations to the organization. A cabin was donated by the British Army, it was disassembled, shipped by boat and carefully reconstructed under the supervision of Ms. Gabriel. The cabin remained the main building of the permanent campsite for over 70 years.

The cabin was used as a meeting, sitting and dining room. The cabin had two small rooms; one was used as an office for the campsite administrator, and the other was a sleeping room for the camp mother. The cabin had a balcony with the width of the cabin overlooking the entire campsite.

Minimalistic sleeping huts were constructed with wooden stands, covered by straw mats covering all the sides. Initially, there were huts for 30 campers, however, over time more were added to accommodate the growing numbers of campers. A kitchen, a dining room and toilets were constructed as concrete buildings built with bricks and tiles. The campsite maintained a simplistic and minimalistic spirit; the ground of the main court, dining room and huts were all covered in sand. This minimalism would usually surprise new campers, however, they quickly get used to the campsite as they get engaged with the fun activities and spirit of the camp.

In September of every year, the huts would be disassembled, and stored in the supply room. This was a tiring task that initially was done by the professional carpenter, who constructed back the main cabin, but then at a later point was done by volunteers. The volunteers who had started to oversee the day-to-day running of the summer camps. Alexandria’s winters weren’t kind to the wooden huts or the cover mats, and so this disassembling and reassembling in May had to be done every year.

The summer camps in their current form, perhaps did not start until the late 1930s when the YWCA Alexandria Committee, led by Mrs. Fischer, started the line of thought that the camps should be considered a “beneficial vacation.”

Before this point, the summer camps were only available to young working women who would want to spend their summer vacation at a friendly location in Alexandria. But since the vision change, additional camps targeting different demographics were added: camps for primary to secondary school girls, gender-mixed camps for kids under 12, boys-only camps, camps for orphans and special-needs. The summer camps focused more on the campers’ personal development.