“Cairo’s Informal Areas Between Urban Challenges and Hidden Potentials: Facts. Voices. Visions”

The Egyptian-German Participatory Development Programme in Urban Areas (PDP) launched its new book “Cairo’s Informal Areas Between Urban Challenges and Hidden Potentials: Facts. Voices. Visions” with a Book Reading and Photo Exhibition at the Goethe Institute in Down Town Cairo on July 8th, 2009.

Marion Fischer, PDP’s Programme Manager, introduces the new publication to the event’s guests at Cairo’s Goethe Institute.

The event commenced with PDP’s staff reading excerpts from the newly-published book. The publication offers a variety of perspectives on Cairo’s informal areas and their development, based on PDP’s experiences with institutionalising participatory approaches in informal area management in Egypt’s capital.

Tawfik Elkheshen (left) of PDP’s Local Initiatives Unit, Amira Hossam (center) of the PDP office in Manshiet Nasser, and Yasmine Yehia (right) of the Local Initiatives Unit take turns at reading from the new publication.

PDP’s Tawfik Elkheshen (left) and Martin Fink (right) read selected excepts from the newly published book.

The reading was followed by a photo exhibition by photojournalist Claudia Wiens, who captured different aspects of the daily lives of residents of informal urban areas for the book on behalf of the PDP.

Guests venture out into the exhibition space to see photographs taken by Claudia Wiens.

The book can be ordered from Mona Abou-Zeid at Mona.Abou-Zeid [AT] giz.de