Dr Wessam El Beih in conversation with Dr Khalid Ali

In this podcast, Dr El Beih, Egypt’s country director of the Drosos Foundation, talks about her journey from a hospital doctor to becoming a pioneer in the use of art and creativity in healing. She was behind the making of the Egyptian film ‘Asmaa’ which highlighted the stigma and discrimination faced by women living with HIV in Egypt. The film was inspired by the real life story of a woman living with HIV that Dr El Beih met as a patient while working as the UNAIDS Country Director in Egypt.

Dr El Beih continued to support the human rights of socially-disadvantaged children and people with physical disability in national awareness-raising campaigns using short films with eminent Egyptian film makers. She explains her vision in engaging with several charitable organisations such as the ‘Banati (My daughters) Foundation’ to support homeless girls.

With extensive experience of more than 25 years in managing development projects in Health, Gender and Education in the Middle East, in North and East Africa and the United States, Dr El Beih led several joint health and social projects supporting the sectors of entrepreneurship, economic empowerment and creativity for youth and women.

Listen to the podcast on Soundcloud.

Dr Wessam El Beih, Drosos Foundation, Egypt

El Beih is the Country Director of the Drosos Foundation in Egypt since September 2014. Prior to that, she served with United Nations Organizations in a number of positions including as UNICEF Chief of Global Fund Management in Somalia. She also worked with Care International as Programme Manager and with Abt Associates in the USA as Senior Research Analyst. El Beih is a medical doctor with a Master degree in Health Systems Management from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.