“2o3od ba2a 3shan hanebda2” that was how the Help Club began their annual reception, at the American University of Cairo (AUC) asking the attendants to be quite and sit down so that they can start.
The annual reception for the Help Club is the one event that most AUCians try not to miss as this is the only event that most people described as hilarious and fun to watch. The Help Club, year after year fascinates its attendants with comedy sketches and documentaries that criticize the wrong situations at the AUC community and Egypt at large.
The club has been publicizing for the reception about two weeks before its date, with the biggest sized banner the AUC campus has ever witnessed. The size of the banner was the talk of people around campus and the “weird and funny” comments on the flyers, asking the students to forget about midterms and movies and come to watch the reception. And fair enough they have succeeded in attracting an audience of 1100.
The reception began with a short speech from professor Safwan Khedr, the clubs senior advisor being proud with the club and its achievements for 15 years in developing parts of “ Old Egypt” and that helped the students participating to develop too. Proceeding that was another speech from Sherif Osman, the club’s president, in which he encouraged the attendants to understand the serious messages behind the work presented in the opening and to appreciate the effort of those who worked on them.
The reception began with its first sketch criticizing the low level of medical treatment in Egypt. The sketch had it all from forgetting a mobile phone in a patient’s stomach, to killing a patient during operation. With the audience literally falling off their seats, the scene ends with the patient dead and everyone goes quiet.
A poem in Arabic about Palestine was recited then, accompanied with some effective shots of the long lasting Palestinian suffering. The club members as many others are very passionate about the Palestinian cause, and are always reminding people it. They have been very active in this area, initiating several awareness campaigns; to the AUC community about the subject. Although the documentary and the poem reduced the fun spirit that everyone had got into, it was very appreciated and was one of the high points of the night.
Being one of the first student community service clubs on the AUC campus, the Help Club has long been engaged in projects such as English and Computer teaching in poor areas in Cairo.
A big part of their work of course is based around fundraising through collecting donations on campus, and then the money is used for Ramadan packages, buying meat for Eid and getting clothes for the poor during Eid. A large group of students participate in these projects and as the club claims their diversity is what makes their work succeed.
Celebrating their diversity the club has put a very inspiring documentary about the members and differences that enrich their club.
After four months of hard work, the Help Club has really succeeded this night in putting a great show to amuse their audience and deliver messages and show what they are all about.
-By Mennatallah Fouad Youssef
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