Welad ElBalad Media Services team won the first place at the competition of the Editors' Lab organized by the Egypt Media Develpment Program (EMDP) and the Global Editors Network (GEN) and hosted by Al-Ahram Foundation. Al-Masry Al-Youm team ranked second.
Welad ElBalad participated with a project that aims to solve the garbage problem in Egypt using mobile phone applications.
ElSandoq is an app that aims to bring awareness of the garbage crisis in Egypt. It is a merger of app tech with gaming. The idea is to make the inputting of information fun and interactive.
If people get out their garbage in the right time they get 50 points. If they put garbage in the right place they get another 50 points. If they report garbage, they get 100 points. If reporting is with a photo, they get 150 points, according to the GEN's website.
The app aims to make people more aware of garbage problem and to get them involved in monitoring the performance of authorities.
Welad ElBalad's team included Wafaa Heikal, Marwan Arafa, and Moustafa Afifi.
"Sahafet Welad El Balad, is a project for the development of independent local and hyper local media outlets outside of Cairo, as anessential component of supporting democratic practice at the grass-roots level while boosting freedom of expression and media excellence in post-Revolution Egypt", Said project Founder and director Fatemah Farag.
"The project aims to support the core values of the Egyptian Revolution, including democracy, human rights, equality, government accountability, and freedom of belief and expression", she added.
Welad El Balad will be compete at the international level in «GEN» summit in June 2015 in Barcelona, Farag said.
The second prize went to Al-Masry Al-Youm's project My Experience.
The goal of the project is to monitor the quality of government services to people with special needs and disabilities who form according to official data almost 10 percent of the population in Egypt.
Al-Masry Al-Youm team included Mohamed Hosam and Ayaat Elhabbal .
GEN includes 1171 members from different countries in the world.The annual conference of the GEN gathers every year journalists and editors around the world to share their expertise and develop innovative journalism tools.
