'Breakchains with Blockchain': Horizon FCB creates an NFT collection to help release fined Egyptian women from prison

Posted on 2022 Mar,28 | By ArabAd's staff

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'Breakchains with Blockchain': Horizon FCB creates an NFT collection to help release fined Egyptian women from prison

Tens of thousands of women are sent to prison in Egypt every year. Their crime? Not being able to repay loans borrowed for amounts of only a few hundred dollars.

These women are known simply as “Al Gharemaat” or “The Fined”. The money they borrow goes to pay for medicine, emergencies, children’s education etc. However, the consequences of not settling back their loans are devastating and lead to significant prison sentences.

Horizon FCB decided to raise awareness about this issue and launched the ‘Breakchains with Blockchain’ intiative.

Inspired by the reasons that cause Egypt's female debtors’ imprisonment, the agency decided to launch a collection of NFTs. Designed by international artists, each tells a woman’s story, the story of why she got sentenced. Each NFT is priced at the amount equal to the cost needed to be freed from prison and grab a second chance at life.

Reham Mufleh, General Manager of Horizon FCB Dubai, commented: “This is one of these moments when you fall in love with your job all over again, when you see how creativity, data & technology can change people’s lives for the better!

Such a passion project. When we first started working on it, it was just another job. But the more we learnt about this issue, the more we wanted to help & the more we wanted to give. And every time we faced a hurdle, we never gave up, we just kept going until we freed the first three women from their debt. This is a feeling you can never put a label on”.

Mazen Jawad, CEO of Horizon Holdings, added “helping others in need hasn’t changed. Our Never Finished approach has changed. Learning about this social issue created a disruption in us to stop and think… but listening to the heart-breaking stories of those women was enough to trigger creativity, effort, engagement and commitment from the whole agency feeling a sense of responsibility and commitment to enable change. Bringing data, creativity and technology together in a perfect equilibrium to enable freedom for those women to unite them back with their families and loved ones was priceless”.

The ‘Breakchains with Blockchain’ was launched on Mother’s Day in Egypt (21 March). On this very day, three mothers were actually released with funds raised from the NFTs, sold.

One of these women is “Rabia”. Her story is that upon the passing of her sister, and in order to honor her memory she had to take a loan to pay her daughter’s wedding.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer she was too unwell to work and make the payments, she was arrested and sentenced to 2 years in prison. The amount she borrowed totalled USD$254.

“Children of Female Prisoners Association” is one of the most active NGOs in Egypt working with Al Gharemaat and their children. It was founded in 1990 by Nawal Mustafa, winner of the "Hope Maker" award from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Working in partnership with Horizon FCB Dubai, together they are raising donations and awareness of this issue around the world, by utilizing a medium that has been gaining great hype recently, NFTs.

Of course there are more women who need to be freed, but even when they are all released the work must remain on-going so to ensure women in Egypt have the resources and education they need until the Al Gharemaat become a thing of the past.

Hopefully such a campaign will gain enough power to change the difficult situation on the ground.

Credits

Client - Children of Female Prisoners Association

Founder & CEO - Nawal Mostafa

Director of Communications - Nader Eissa

Social Worker - Hafza Obied

Agency - Horizon FCB Dubai:

CEO Horizon Holdings – Mazen Jawad

General Manager – Reham Mufleh

Executive Creative Director - Rodrigo Leal Rodrigues

Associate Creative Director - Jonathan Cruz

Senior Art Director - Zayd Abidi

Senior Arabic Copywriter - Bassam Doss

Senior Copywriter - Lucy Elder

Associate Creative Director - Antonio Cue

Traffic Manager – Rosemarie Jimenez

Senior Video Editor - Anthony Heneine

Video Editor and Motion Designer - Alman Magpusao

Sarah Nasser – Account Director

Motion Graphics – Sachin Jain

Diogo Borges – Technologist

NFT Artists: Hannah Prado; Miguel Karbage; Fady Youssef Rofaeel; Steafanus/Rondon Fernades; Douglas Reis; Stefanus; Rodrigo Nuig; Paulo de Almeida

Production:

Production House: Film DNA

Director: Dina Abdelraheem

Executive Producer: Dina Abdelraheem & Nour Abdelraheem

DP: Ahmed Hamdi

Directors Producer: Dahlia Galal

Production: Mina Maher and Hatem Samir

Photographer: Abdelrahman Ibrahim

Gaffer: Eshta

Equipment: Haytham El Said

Sound Eng: Mostafa Metwally

Horizon FCB Dubai & Film DNA: Hani Osama