Ahmed Bahaa Eldin Cultural Centre Marks 15 Years of Impact in Assiut

In a quiet corner of Assiut, the Ahmed Bahaa Eldin Cultural Centre stands as a living tribute to one of Egypt’s most influential intellectuals — and as a vital bridge between education, creativity, and community life. As it celebrates its anniversary, the centre looks back on decades of work fostering cultural awareness, learning, and access to opportunity in one of the country’s most underserved regions.

Founded in the 2010 by the Ahmed Bahaa Eldin Foundation, the centre was established not just to memorialise the late journalist and writer after which it was named, but to continue his vision of making knowledge and culture accessible to all Egyptians. A prolific journalist who served as editor-in-chief of leading publications including Rose al-Youssef and Al-Ahram, and founded Al-Arabi magazine, Bahaa Eldin often wrote about the need to bring education and cultural services to communities far from Cairo’s urban centre — a call his family and colleagues answered by founding the centre in Assiut, where Bahaa Eldin's father once left to work as a government official in Alexandria and Cairo.

From its earliest days, the foundation faced challenges that reflected the broader realities of life in rural Egypt — limited infrastructure, scarce funding, and social barriers to participation. Yet through persistence and trust-building, the centre gradually became a cornerstone of local life. It began with small cultural competitions, literary events, and reading initiatives before expanding into a permanent facility offering art, music, theatre, cinema, and educational programming.

Today, the centre serves hundreds of children and young adults each week, hosting workshops in the arts, science, and digital literacy. One of its most transformative steps was introducing computer programming and robotics classes, with a growing number of girls participating. “The enthusiasm is incredible,” Nouran Fayed, director of the Ahmed Bahaa Eldin Foundation, tells CairoScene. “We started with basic computer training, and now we have students who want to learn coding, networks, and robotics.”

The foundation’s partnership with the Digital Expression Foundation helped expand these efforts, introducing game design and digital storytelling into a setting where access to technology remains limited. With intermittent internet connectivity and few computers at home, the centre’s labs have become a crucial entry point for students into the digital world.

The library — one of Upper Egypt’s most comprehensive — remains another cornerstone. It draws not only children but also university students and researchers, offering a rich collection of local history and literature. Beyond books, the centre has also become a hub for inclusion, launching early-intervention programmes for children with disabilities and awareness workshops for parents and teachers on identifying learning difficulties and developmental challenges.

Every summer, the centre hosts a festival that showcases children’s creative projects and performances. Under the slogan 'We Dream of a Better Tomorrow', it gives young participants a platform to express their hopes for their community — from girls calling for more access to sports, to boys dreaming of better educational opportunities.

Many of the centre’s earliest participants have since built careers shaped by their experiences there. Former attendees have gone on to become lawyers, master’s students, and trainers returning to teach the next generation. "One graduate of the centre’s robotics programme now studies computer networks as part of Telecom Egypt’s 'STEM Education Program'," Fayed shares.

Looking ahead, the Ahmed Bahaa Eldin Foundation looks to expand its programs and cultural services to reach more underserved communities across Upper Egypt through mobile libraries, community theatres, and hands-on activities in arts, science and technology — each adapted to local traditions and needs.

At its core, the centre remains what its founders intended it to be: a place where education, creativity, and civic life converge. In a region where resources are limited but talent is abundant, the Ahmed Bahaa Eldin Cultural Centre continues to show how one idea — rooted in equality, culture, and opportunity — can grow into lasting change.