CAIRO: It was the time she spent in Tahrir Square during the 18-day uprising that inspired Shereen Farghal to create a website to help Egypt's craftsmen, who she believes were one of the main cornerstones of the revolution. An interior designer, Farghal explained that the nature of her job puts her in direct contact with several craftsmen. “Even when sitting in Tahrir Square, I realized I was surrounded by craftsmen again,” she told Daily News Egypt. During the uprising, craftsmen were calling Farghal, complaining that they're going out of business and money is running short, which prompted her to launch Sanay3y.com; a website that allows craftsmen looking for jobs to submit their contact information and link them with users interested in hiring them. At first, the website only dealt with the craftsmen that Farghal knew personally. “It was still before the ouster of Mubarak, and the entire country was suffering from drastic lack of security,” Farghal recalled, “So in order to assure the clients using the website about the identity of the craftsmen, I had all craftsmen on the website insert their ID numbers, a personal photograph, plus my own comments guaranteeing that I personally know and trust them.” Farghal later saw a growing interest from craftsmen who were signing up for the website. “At first, I was afraid that the craftsmen who enter their information – those whom I don't know personally – might not prove efficient or trustworthy.” Nevertheless, she was soon able to get around that problem. The website offers a ‘comments' section for every craftsman for users to rate them. “When a craftsman doesn't do his job properly, the client who hired him would warn people against dealing with him,” she said. Farghal said this way she can openly promote the website, and whoever proves incompetent would be known through the feedback the clients provide. Moreover, she said hiring a bad craftsman wouldn't reflect on the website, since the clients understand that the website is only an intermediary. As the number of website users increased, Farghal felt it was only natural to further upgrade and enhance it. “The enhancement usually comes as a response to the craftsmen's requests,” she said. She was contacted by drivers, tailors and other craftsmen whose crafts do not fall under any category on the website. Consequently, she added an option allowing the craftsmen to add their own craft should it not be available. Moreover, other craftsmen from outside the capital contacted her prompting her to include the entire 29 governorates on the website. Users can search and hire craftsmen by district, within a governorate. The feedback on the website, according to Farghal, has been positive. Even though there is no tangible way of exactly finding out how well the website's doing, Farghal takes the increasing number of users as an indicator. So far the website attracted over 900 users. “Craftsmen show special interest and commitment when they realize they've been hired through the website,” she explained. “Even the clients sometimes find the fact that they were easily able to find a skilled craftsman within their district is rather incredible.” Farghal filters the information on the website every 48 hours to preserve the quality of its content. “This is a voluntary service; I work according to the growing demands of the website's users,” she said.
