Refugees in Egypt stars a program on cooking with a human touch

Ayat Jawdat

Young Egyptian actress Sherine Arafa presented a cooking program called "Not Just a Meal", which sheds light on the humanitarian problem in Egypt, with a human aim to integrate them into society and learn about the cultures of peoples.

The program is displayed through the Facebook video viewing platform, and it is considered one of the institutions concerned with integrating food with different cultures, in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Egypt (UNHCR).

The idea of ​​the program came by using the month of Ramadan to shed light on the refugee problem and learn about their cultural backgrounds, but without the program being a review of the painful memories that they were exposed to before coming to Egypt, but rather to talk about their good memories and favorite songs they love to croon and present the cultures of their countries, while cooking them A delicious meal from their country's heritage.

According to UNHCR, there are nearly a quarter of a million registered refugees in Egypt from 58 different countries, and the program aims to approach the lives of these refugees in a gentle manner.

The host of the program hosts a celebrity for sharing the experience. So far, the program has received four refugee women: from Eritrea with actress Ola Rushdie, from Sudan and the guest of the episode was the young actor Khaled Anwar, and a Syrian lady where the actor Tariq Sabri was the guest of honor in the episode.

The Syrian actress Kinda Alloush participated in the first episode with a woman from Yemen, and because Alloush is not Egyptian, each of them was able to talk about her feelings upon her arrival in Egypt the first time.

And it happened that both of them came to Egypt in 2009, and they talked together about the strange situations and attributes that they liked in the Egyptian people, and they sang together some songs.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Egypt aims to improve their conditions, and a new campaign has begun this month of Ramadan to help refugees around the world, adding a way to donate online, calling on donors to contribute to protecting refugee families to provide shelter, food and drink for them.