Yahoo! and Nahdet El Mahrousa, an Egypt-based nongovernmental organisation (NGO) have launched an online campaign to encourage social entrepreneurship among young Egyptians.

Called “Social innovation starts with YOU”, the campaign is aligned with the U.S. Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship that will take place on April 26 and 27 in Washington DC, where Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang will speak on how the Internet can positively transform lives, societies, and economies in emerging markets and Arab communities.

“Yahoo!’s announcement to acquire Maktoob last year shined the spotlight on tech entrepreneurs in the Arab world and the incredible potential and talent in the region that is largely untapped,” said Ahmed Nassef, managing director of Yahoo! Middle East.

“This partnership with Nahdet El Mahrousa continues our commitment to invigorate and grow the Internet market in the Middle East as a whole and will enable the next wave of tech entrepreneurs from Egypt to realize their dreams. We can’t wait to see their innovative ideas!”

Social innovation starts with YOU

Starting in April, two successful Egyptian social entrepreneurs will be featured on the “Social innovation starts with YOU” campaign’s website (socialinnovation.yahoo.com), sharing their compelling stories and providing advice to up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

In June, up to ten entrepreneurs will be featured, and visitors to the website can vote for the entrepreneur who they think has made the biggest impact on their communities.

The winner will be featured on the front page of Maktoob.com and be invited to be a judge for the campaign’s social innovation competition.

In the social innovation competition, launching in June, Yahoo! and Nahdet El Mahrousa will invite individuals from across Egypt to be the next social entrepreneurs of the year by developing new ideas in the fields of education, health, environment, and a wildcard category.

The campaign’s website will serve as an entry point for aspiring entrepreneurs by providing an online toolkit of inspirational stories, advice, resources, and Web services to get them started.

Ten winners will be honored with monetary grants and technical and management support to help bring their ideas to life.  Among the winners will be already existing social entrepreneurs who will receive support to scale their efforts and achieve wider impact.

In total, Yahoo! will contribute $500,000 to the campaign, and as part of that, will provide close to $250,000 in monetary grants to awardees.  In addition to monetary support, the innovation awardees will also receive training and mentoring support for three years to help ensure success.

“In partnering with Yahoo! we are furthering Nahdet El Mahrousa’s mission to engage and activate young Egyptian professionals in the development and public arenas and in shaping Egypt’s future,” said Loay El Shawarby, chairman of the board of Nahdet El Mahrousa.

“The ‘Social innovation starts with YOU’ campaign will provide a valuable platform for  budding social entrepreneurs in Egypt to help make their enterprise ideas become a reality as well as help existing social enterprises scale-up. As an added benefit, we believe that supporting emerging and existing enterprises will help create new jobs for Egypt and the region,” El Shawarby added. – TradeArabia News Service