al-Resala: A Case Study of Civic Engagement in the Middle East

Resala Training Center (RTC) of Dokki is one of the many services provided to the community by the organization Resala. Resala is the largest NGO in Cairo and it was started in 1999 as  a student movement at the department of engineering at Cairo University. RTC provides training to the community in different areas such as languages, human development, religion, etc. All of the classes are taught by volunteers with different experiences in their designated areas. Some of the participants of the language programs eventually become volunteers and instructors at RTC. It is a self-sustaining and self-developed program.

Throughout this past summer I volunteered at RTC as an instructor of Spanish and English sponsored by the Service Opportunities in Leadership (SOL) program. SOL is a program developed under the Hart Leadership Program of Duke University. As a result of my experience at RTC, I was able to experience the structure and organization of the language programs as well as develop an evaluation procedure for the programs working conjointly with RTC. This report presents a summary of my conclusions as suggestions for the improvement of the program. Enclosed within this report are also the program evaluation forms and instructions on how they can be used within all of the RTC programs.