Community
Published: November 24, 2021
Community
Published: November 24, 2021

Color Comes to the Rescue in an Egyptian Orphanage

Every child, no matter their age, deserves to have a safe and loving environment to grow up in. In this COLORFUL COMMUNITIES® story, there is a happy ending that is sure to brighten your day. This time, it comes from Cairo, Egypt, where our colleagues renovated an orphanage for abandoned babies that was in need of some love and lots of color!

A Charity Saving the Lives of Children in Egypt

FACE for Children in Need is an organization serving vulnerable children in Egypt. It is their priority to place orphaned and abandoned children with families. To date, the charity’s 216 employees have helped over 21,000 children.

You may remember when our Cairo colleagues successfully renovated the charity’s drop-in and transitional home, the El Salam Center, back in 2019. This time, their focus was on the Maadi Center, the charity’s orphanage for babies aged 0-2 years old.

Mohamed Sayed, our finance and administration manager for Egypt, based in Cairo, was in charge of the project, supported greatly by Mokhtar Hassan, our Protective and Marine Coatings (PMC) market manager for Egypt.

The center is dedicated to taking in children under the age of two who have been abandoned on the street, and to giving them all the support they need.

Supporting with Paint and Practicalities

This summer, 20 volunteers (including four community helpers) turned up at the Maadi Center with 281 liters of locally manufactured SIGMA COATINGS® paints and a sense of determination.

The dedicated team spent two days painting the walls and murals, as well as the playground, in bright and fun colors for the children to enjoy. They also gifted the kids with toys.

We even donated one month’s salary to all employees working at the center, as well as the cost of maintenance for the doors, kitchen staff, sewage and water supply.

We painted a smile on the faces of the children plus we gave a hand to the people working there so they don’t feel they are alone.

A Passion for Making PPG Number One

Mokhtar has been with us for 27 years and has climbed his way up from the position of sales technical representative to the role of market manager for Egypt & Libya.

He manages the sales and operation teams and oversees our activities with customers. He is excited by our company’s growth and the opportunities in our field, and he is motivated by the challenge of getting us to the top of the leaderboard in his region.

I was the first person to be responsible for the Sigma Coatings brand, even before it was owned by PPG, and I want this brand to be number one in Egypt.

Mokhtar considers himself to be an uncomplicated man who is easy to communicate with. He likes to visit his university friends and to assist the families of old friends who have passed away.

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With Paintbrush in Hand

Mohamed tells us that when he invited Mokhtar to take part in this Colorful Communities project, he jumped at the chance. Though he wasn’t asked to take a supervisory role, he naturally did everything he could to make the project a big success.

He was keen to get all employees involved, especially on the volunteering day. He supported, pushed, and helped in all phases of the project. He really ran it like he owned it!
Mohamed

On the volunteering days, Mokhtar was there with paintbrush in hand, helping to bring a splash of color to the bedrooms, gardens and walls of the orphanage.

It is clear from his passion that projects like these are important to Mokhtar:

We were able to have a positive impact on the lives of others in our community by improving the building and supporting the children at the same time.
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