When Menna Shahin was young, she dreamt of exploring the world and having new experiences. As soon as she graduated from Ain Sham University in Cairo in 2009, majoring in pharmaceutical industries, she challenged the strict family rules and took a one-month trip to Europe, covering seven countries.

Being away from home, she learnt about being independent, without disappointing her family's expectations. She also opened up her horizons to new lifestyles and cultures. On returning home, Shahin decided to share her experience with other women in her community and became a role model for proactive female entrepreneurs in Egypt, a country where social norms don't allow women the opportunity to travel alone.

"The first time I traveled, I had a culture shock; but later on, I got to know how to travel on a tight budget and then traveled abroad once every two or three months, developing new skills along the way," said Shahin.

Travel initiative

Using her new found travel skills, Shahin proactively set up a campaign on several social media platforms entitled "She Travels". The initiative is aimed at encouraging women to challenge society's restrictions against women, among which travel prohibition is something Shahin feels weakens the capacity of women to be proactive members of society in a patriarchal-oriented culture.

The initiative paved the way for women to enjoy traveling without fear of a possible backlash from society and family. As part of the trips, women who travel together establish networking opportunities and mentoring relationships with qualified life coaches.

"We target women from all provinces of Egypt and those who have never left home. I organize self-development and motivational workshops and take them on trips to fascinating places in Egypt and overseas. [In the process] some have learnt diving and others learnt skiing and hiking, and this has made the participants feel stronger and more resilient," said 33-year-old Shahin, who has visited more than 30 countries.

The She Travels campaign has attracted women from across the country, many being from underprivileged communities, and now has more than half a million followers online. However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Egypt's lockdown forced the initiative to suspend its travel activities until the pandemic can be brought under control.

Waste not, want not

Shahin is a woman of many parts. Apart from her She Travels initiative, she is also the regional head of an international pharmaceutical company in Dubai, and mother of a baby. But her entrepreneurial curiosity is always on tap.

In 2019, Shahin and her husband were finishing up their late evening dinner at a Cairo restaurant when she noticed huge amounts of food being thrown in the trash. She asked if she could buy the left-over food at a cheaper price. The manager refused and Shahin was overwhelmingly concerned by the fact that all the food leftovers were headed for a dumpster.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, roughly one-third of the edible parts of food produced for human consumption get lost or wasted globally - about 1.3 billion tons per year. In Egypt, this problem is also huge. The most wasted food products in the country generally are fruits, vegetables, cereals and bakery products, according to the FAO. Wasting food is common among all social classes.

"I was thinking about the one-third of all food being thrown away and had lots of concerns that this waste could increase the rate of carbon dioxide pollution to a tremendous level. I discussed with my husband the idea of establishing a mobile application that could encourage and facilitate donating the [good quality] food not used and soon-to-expire products to charity organizations, or sell them at affordable prices to the poor," said Shahin.

Prior to launching TeKeya, the app which she co-founded, she attended several workshops and studied food management to learn more about how to convert her vision into an applicable model.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lockdown and curfew was imposed in Egypt, forcing people to stay at home. TeKeya stepped up its efforts, especially during the holy month of Ramadan when larger amounts of food are often wasted, and launched a target campaign called the "TeKeya Challenge."

The initiative aims to increase awareness about reducing the amounts of food wasted and deliver hot meals to the people most affected by the COVID-19, medical staff who stand in the frontline of fighting the pandemic as well as the elderly who are more vulnerable to the disease.

Shahin said there are socio-economic, cultural and behavioral factors that exacerbate the problem of food waste. Some retailers and restaurant owners are in self-denial that there is a problem in the first place, as it might tarnish their image and affect the purchasing standard, she said.

"But we explain to them that having perfectly fresh food left at the end of the day is not [a] bad [thing] at all and that it can still be sold to consumers at reduced prices or donated to charities using our TeKeya app," she added.

TeKeya has already had 6,000 downloads, according to the company website, and Shahin told StartupScene.me that she has future plans to expand TeKeya to the rest of the Middle East and North Africa region.

The initiative works with three types of food providers who register on the app – hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. Food can include unserved ready meals or baked goods in restaurants, previously refrigerated items or uneaten buffet servings. Hotels mostly have larger amounts of food that can be given to charity organizations in the form of donations. In addition, food providers are assisted to sell their items at reduced prices by posting them on the app showing the production and expiry dates.

"We don't include food leftovers in the project. We use high-quality food that might otherwise turn into waste," said Shahin.

Shahin is now a role model for many Egyptian women as she proactively works to overcome societal and cultural challenges, and aspires to inspire women wherever and whenever possible. 

 Reporting from Egypt

(Print Edition Title: Proactive Spirit)  

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