Thanks & Loyalty
Letter of Resigning
Chairwoman of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights
Board Members of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights
Members of the Executive Secretariat and Employees
As you are most likely aware of, I was just recently elected as the Secretary General of the National Council of Women in Egypt. This is not just a great honor for me but, being a member in such a national machinery like the National Council of Women, also comes with a great responsibility. This responsibility requires me to be neutral and impartial towards all Civil Society Organizations, thus I decided to resign as the chairwoman of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights.
I am deeply grateful to ECWR, which I founded together with 6 other women in Dar El Salaam, a neighborhood of Cairo, in 1996. As we came together voluntarily and without resources, we only had one aim in mind: the provision of direct legal aid to poor women and to train them to know and claim their rights independently. Today we can proudly look back to our accomplishments: Through our activities we have successfully changed around 20 legislations, among them the labor law and personal status law, to improve the legal status of women in Egypt. Throughout the time ECWR has started close Partnerships with a broad range of partners including around 800 local and 50 regional and international NGO and activists in 16 Arab and 10 African countries, as well as reached out to 50000 beneficiaries every year in addition to a wide number of volunteers.
Today, I am confident that I leave ECWR as a strong organization. ECWR’s professionalism and trustworthiness has created strong ties to donors, with some we have already cooperate for many years. Through ECWR’s outstanding work, the World Bank
World honored us with including us in the list of the 10 Best Development Projects and we were named Best Idea in the Middle East and North Africa in V-Day’s 2001 competition for the booklet “Rape: the Safe Crime”. Also we were awarded the 2008 Adel Abo Zahra Award for our efforts to empower Egyptian women.
In my new position as Secretary General, I believe in utilizing my experience and my background in Civil Society work to improve the workings of National Council to implement change on the ground. The real power behind ECWR’s success has always been the outstanding staff, who are eager to continue their efforts with even more energy and commitment. I am confident that the National Council of Women, in its mission and its qualified members that we will contribute with the same effort and determination, as ECWR’s staff, to the empowerment of women, women’s equality in all areas and at last
to the development of Egypt.
I want to express my sincerest gratitude to the entire ECWR team for the fruitful cooperation and all our partners and donors for the support granted to ECWR. I look forward to seeing Egypt develop into a country based on equality and human rights for all. Let us together continue to cooperate to make this a reality.
Sincerely
Nehad Abo El-Qomsan
Secretary General
The National Council of Women
Cairo February 23, 2012
