In 1995, Hoda Talaat Harb , the daughter of the great economist Talaat Harb donated the first milestone of Cardiac Surgery Academy (CSA) by a check on Bank Misr of a LE 6,000,000. A 4600 square- meter plot of land located on Ramses Street, in the same El-Demerdash quarter of Abbassia, El-Wayli precinct. The land has been dedicated to the construction of this university hospital which shall house 400 beds. The hospital cost, at that time, is estimated at LE180,000,000. To emphasize the importance of the "great gift," Bank Misr published reports from the Egyptian press: which covered the opening ceremony, and praised the "splendid donation" of an amount unprecedented in Egypt. It added, "It is to be hoped that many people of means will emulate this noble example."
The extraordinary sum of LE100,000 -- by the standards of the 1920s -- which was donated by a certain Abdel-Rahim El-Demerdash to build a charity hospital, was a magnanimous gesture in 1928, the largest donation made by an Egyptian in living memory. A 15,000 square- metre plot of land located on Queen Nazli (currently Ramses)
Street,
In the El-Demerdash quarter of Abbassia, El-Wayli precinct. The land has been dedicated to the construction of a charity hospital which shall house 75 beds. The hospital cost is estimated at LE40,000 and the remainder of the donation -- LE60,000 -- is to be allocated to running the hospital on condition the government covers any deficit." Donations for philanthropic institutions was not a Western concept but had Islamic roots, institutionalized in the form of waqf, or religious endowments. So while unprecedented in scale, El-Demerdash's donation was not an isolated case. Al-Ahram cited the names of several citizens in earlier decades who had provided generously for the founding of hospitals. El-Demerdash's generosity, however, was the most widely publicized, and led to the beginning of community work and a scramble to emulate him.
This development manifested itself in "community work," or what we might term today NGOs. Or, in the words of the article, "No sooner did that voice call out to the nation than people poured forth money to establish charitable societies, of which we now have more than 80, to build schools for the poor, shelters and hospitals. And with every passing year those with the means take yet another big step forward in charitable works, to the extent that within a quarter of a century we will stand among the ranks of civilized nations."
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