In cooperation with iRead initiative, Orange Egypt, the leading provider of integrated telecommunications services, announced the launch of the first library for iRead at Orange's main headquarters in the Smart Village. The library is the first step towards creating a cultural environment and building a better future for the next generations. Orange Egypt sponsors such cultural initiative in line with the company's strategy and international trend towards implementing a sustainable social responsibility plans aiming to achieve sustainable development, as education and culture are among the main pillars supported by Orange in the field of the community service. On the sidelines of the launch of the first iRead library at Orange premises, Eng. Yasser Shaker CEO of Orange Egypt and Engy El Sabban, CEO and Board of VictoryLink and co-founder of iRead signed a Memorandum of Understanding which aims at opening the doors of culture and reading to various social segments and sponsoring more initiatives in the upcoming period. The MoU was witnessed by Sherine Rashed Founder of iRead, and the renowned writer and novelist Ahmed Mourad, Orange's top management and employees. In parallel, iRead will inaugurate other libraries in Orange branches, clubs, universities and schools, to make books accessible and handy to everyone and motivate them to read. Moreover, iRead will also launch within few months the “One Million Books” campaign, which aims to disseminate knowledge by making books readily available to the underprivileged by placing iRead libraries in schools, orphanages, hospitals to target the largest segments. It's noteworthy that Diwan bookstore played an important role in providing Orange employees with a collection of English and Arabic books for free, to be available in iRead's library at Orange premises, as Diwan believes in the effective role of iRead in spreading the culture of reading in the community. iRead was launched in 2019 in collaboration with VictoryLink, a leading technology company, to present digital content across different social media platforms while launching different activations and campaigns to encourage reading and enhance interaction with youth in Egypt and the Middle East. The initiative's objective is to encourage a daily habit of reading among young people and to reduce the control of social media on the next generations. Likewise, it has adopted a new approach for promotions in line with the youth's modern ideas and beliefs through producing short videos of celebrities in which they talk about the impact of reading on changing their lives for the better. For his part, Eng. Yasser Shaker CEO of Orange Egypt expressed his pride to be a part of this initiative and added "We will be supporting iRead in many different ways in the upcoming period as it strives to influence individuals, contributes to their self-development, shapes a well-informed community, and raises an intellectually-competent new generation." "Orange Egypt will pursue sponsoring more initiatives to promote the concept of reading not only among youth and school students, but also amid various segments of society, pointing out that these initiatives seek to highlight the importance of reading and its role in building civilizations and cohesive societies in cooperation with governmental institutions and celebrities including writers and poets", Shaker added. Engy El-Sabban, CEO and Board Member of VictoryLink and co-founder of iRead, said that "iRead achieved a noticeable success in our society in the past period". She added that "iRead exerts constant efforts to spread reading among our Arab world and make it a part of our daily routine. Through its activities and campaigns, iRead created a communication platform between social groups and public figures who tell their success stories and highlight the crucial role that reading has played in their lives." iRead's Founder, Sherine Rashed, said that "iRead is an initiative that revitalizes reading in Egypt and the entire Arab world through technology, as technology is a double-edged sword. It has the power to illuminate but can also be destructive. However, we chose its better side." For his part the writer and novelist Ahmed Mourad said that he is excited to support iRead initiative, as reading has declined recently compared to social media platforms invasion. "Reading is the key to the future," Mourad added. Mourad also participated in the opening of iRead's library by signing the books of the attendees. Since its launch, iRead has won a lot of attention where it provided an exclusive subscription service for all Orange customers, allowing them to follow up on everything concerned with reading including books release dates, and dates of cultural and artistic events. The number of its subscribers has reached 2 million subscribers. Furthermore, the number of followers of iRead's Facebook page has reached more than 1 million followers, as it launches various activities such as reading ambassadors, creative songs, and short story competitions to discover and inspire a new generation of writers and intellectuals. In November 2019, iRead launched a free mobile application that introduces books, trivia, quotes and first editions signed by the authors. These books are sold at reasonable prices, and can be delivered to any place. The number of the applications' downloads so far has reached up to 4000 downloads.
