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Mr. Barry
Gaberman, has accepted to volunteer his time and efforts to advise ADEW on
setting-up an endowment scheme within the organization. After continuing
graduate study in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin with an
emphasis on comparative politics (Southeast Asia concentration), Gaberman
joined the Ford Foundation in August 1971. Gaberman has held, in
succession, such Ford portfolios as program officer providing liaison and
backstopping to Asian social science and population programs; director of
the Office of Program Related Investments (PRIs), deputy vice president
for the U.S. and International Affairs component of the Program Division,
as well as deputy vice president of that division. He has served on a
multitude of philanthropy-related boards, and was founding father of the
WINGS (Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support) program and Ford's
International Initiative to Strengthen Philanthropy.
The urgent need for endowment emerged in 2001 when the internal system of
ADEW's core donor, has been down. Consequently, the donor was not able to
deliver to ADEW the funding needed for a period of 8 months. At that
moment, we realized the extreme importance of having an endowment system
to secure the financial sustainability of ADEW", said Dr. Iman Bibars ADEW
chairperson.
Since then, ADEW has exerted tremendous efforts trying to initiate
an endowment system within the organization. We have targeted lawyers,
looked for endowment experts, tried to learn from the experiences of other
organizations that had succeeded in implementing this idea, and have
checked many of the researches and studies that have been developed around
this issue.
As a result of our research, we found an excellent study developed by the
Ford foundation entitled "A Premier for endowment grant makers". Based on
this study, we spread the word of our desire in making contacts with of
any of the working group members who developed the study, in the hope they
would be willing to advice us subsequently. Responsively, Dr. Barbara
Ibrahim, director of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic
Engagement at the American University in Cairo, coordinated with Mr. Barry
and he graciously agreed to be ADEW's consultant pro- bono.
Undoubtedly, we are all hoping that Mr. Barry's gracious cooperation would
constitute a turning point for ADEW. If ADEW would be able to sustain
itself, it would accordingly respond to a greater number of
underprivileged women and children living in the poorest squatter areas of
Egypt.
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