Young Sudanese volunteer honoured for her selfless work supporting refugees in Egypt

On a recent Wednesday morning, a group of refugees, mainly men and women from Sudan and Syria, fill the waiting room at a centre run by the Rouh Initiative in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria in northern Egypt.

By noon, around 60 patients with various medical needs have already been attended to. It is another busy day for 31-year-old Sudanese refugee, Nada Fadol, who has been running this multi-purpose centre since the Sudan war broke out in April last year and an influx of refugees began crossing the border into Egypt.

Nada and her friends transformed a three-bedroom apartment into a one-stop shop to support refugees and asylum-seekers. A medical convoy operated by the Egyptian Red Crescent visits twice a month, offering free health-care services and medical check-ups.

“We donate what we can to pay for the rent and running costs,” she explains.

“Rouh means soul in Arabic, because we are all one soul regardless of [our origin], whether we are Syrian, Sudanese or Egyptian.”

Cutting a sandwich in half to share

Nada knows first-hand what it means to be displaced, having arrived in Alexandria in late 2015, alone and with nothing but determination to rebuild her life.

Adapting to life in a new country was difficult. Without a job, and unable to continue her studies, she got tired of sitting idly at home. Instead, she decided to use her skills to tutor refugee children, mainly from Syria, living in her neighbourhood.

“They used to ask me: ‘How do I solve this problem?’, ‘how do I read this?’, and ‘how do I do that?’ So, I decided to bring them all together and give them lessons at home.”

She soon built a strong reputation in the community, which meant more people sought her help. She decided to team up with other young refugees to start the Rouh Initiative as a means of mobilizing more support for refugees.

Nada says the ethos of giving back and caring for others is deeply rooted in Sudanese culture and was instilled in her by her parents from a young age.

Nada Fadol, 31, centre, who is the Middle East and North Africa Regional Winner of the 2024 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award, speaks to fellow Sudanese refugee and father-of-five Hamad Mohamed Abdelkader, right, alongside Rouh Initiative coordinator Marwa Azhary Sayed Hegazy, left, at the organization’s community centre in Alexandria, Egypt. © UNHCR/Christina Rizk

“We were raised to never bring one sandwich to school; we would always carry two in case someone didn’t have food,” she says. “We did this because we knew how difficult it was for someone to say ‘I have no food’. So that no person would feel like they were different from us, we would cut our sandwiches into pieces and eat together in a group.”

When hundreds of thousands of fellow Sudanese refugees fleeing violence began arriving in Egypt, Nada initially engaged other young people from the refugee and host communities in Alexandria to work with her to help families stranded in the southern border town of Aswan.

Two of her friends travelled to Aswan to assess the situation and establish a connection with local youth in the city, and upon returning to Alexandria the group immediately started fundraising.

“We raised funds from the people here  [in Alexandria], then we sent it to our friends in Aswan to buy juice, water, and meals and deliver it to people arriving at the border,” she says.

As first responders on the ground, Nada and her friends, as she likes to call her team, managed to assist hundreds of new arrivals. In addition to providing them with hot meals and cash assistance, they connected the most vulnerable, including children and the sick and elderly, to local residents who provided them with temporary housing.

Families torn apart

Before last April, she never imagined that her home country would plunge into violence. Her mother and two siblings came to Egypt for medical reasons just days before the war started. The rest of her family members were caught up in the conflict and fled in different directions.

Desperate to find them, she created a group chat on Facebook Messenger to connect with other people looking for their loved ones. She found her elder sister through the group who then traced their father and the rest of the family. While some of her siblings have since reunited with her and her mother in Egypt, the rest of the family remains in Sudan.

The group chat attracted hundreds of other people who continue to use it to track their families who are still trapped in the country.

As the Sudan war stretches into a second year with no end in sight, an estimated 500,000 Sudanese refugees have so far been registered in Egypt by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Such a large and rapid influx can overwhelm the resources of aid agencies, making initiatives such as Rouh vital in providing critical community-level assistance and psychosocial support to those forced to flee.

Nada chats with friends and colleagues at the Rouh initiative. © UNHCR/Christina Rizk

Nada with fellow Sudanese refugees Dina Khaled Othman (left) and Elham Mohamed Gallab (right) after an art therapy session. © UNHCR/Christina Rizk

In recognition of her selfless work and dedication to helping her fellow refugees, Nada has been selected as the 2024 regional winner for the Middle East and North Africa of the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award.

“I am very happy about winning this award,” she says with a huge smile. “I can’t even describe how happy I am feeling right now.”

She was at the centre when she was told the news, which had yet to be made public. “My mouth was wide open, I wanted to scream. So, I ran downstairs to the street and found a corner. I let out a scream ‘Aaaah!’ and I went back as if nothing ever happened,” she laughs.

Home, peace and love

Back in the centre, as soon as the last patients and doctors have left, the rooms are rearranged to prepare for the next activities of the day, which include training for young women on how to crochet and make canvas bags, followed by an art therapy session for adults and youth.

Most of the activities are run by young refugee volunteers like 24-year-old Khalida Abas, whom Nada supported when she first arrived in the city last March. “I am grateful to Nada, she welcomed me to this country,” she says. “I now train young women on how to make canvas bags twice a week.”

“Nada is like my elder sister,” she adds. “I love her with all my heart; she is my role model, and I go to her for advice.”

The last activity of the day is a cultural get-together. More people arrive, including Egyptians, Syrians and Sudanese refugees, carrying fruit and homemade traditional food. The aroma of freshly roasted coffee swirls through the air along with the sounds of Sudanese songs playing on a portable speaker. Older adults sit at the back of the room near the window while young people, led by Nada and Khalida – each wearing a strikingly colourful Sudanese garment called a thawb – take turns dancing together in the middle.

“Everyone looks forward to this,” Nada says. “We come together once every two weeks to celebrate, dance, eat together, and play songs about home, peace, and love.”

Eventually, she hopes to expand her work beyond Egypt and reach more people in need.

“[We can help] as much as we can with simple things,” she says. “Why not find volunteers in other countries that have problems? It would be a beautiful thing if we were able to help as many people in need as possible, wherever they are.”