Nourhan Refaat (Nour), comes to us from Giza, Egypt. Her name, Nour, means light, she describes herself as a lifelong learner, hard worker, a team player, and outgoing caring person. She personifies these traits through her life work of empowering women and youth in Egypt. Nour started volunteering in her community at age 15, and went on to spend 5 years working for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) such as “Save the Children,” “The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),” and the “American University in Cairo (AUC).” Her areas of focus are Women Empowerment, Education and Refugee Issues. She graduated from AUC with degrees in English and Psychology and received a Lazard Leadership Fellowship.
Nour has witnessed many stories of women who face violence in their daily life bases, including loss of life because of gender-based violence. She has taken on personal responsibility for helping better the lives of Egyptian women through her social initiatives, professional work, and knowledge mainstreaming. She has been working long, hard hours toward her goals.
Two years ago, during COVID-19, Nour was having an extremely tough time in her life, working particularly hard for nine months on a project to empower Egyptian youth. She wanted to start focusing on her mental health and well-being. She knew that she was fascinated with water sports and tried various types. She then borrowed a friend’s inflatable stand-up paddle board and found her passion!
Nour had a huge challenge ahead of her. There are less than 6 female paddleboarders in Egypt. She had no one to teach her how to stand on the board or how to paddle. She was completely self taught. She had to be patient with herself and push ahead. She was using all borrowed equipment and was paddling on the Nile River, which has limited access to its banks, and no bathroom or changing facilities. She was the only paddler on the water. But she progressed quickly.
After two months of training, Nour joined Egypt’s cup competition and won a gold medal. She then joined other competitions and won even more medals! She says the journey was not easy. Taking the first step and being a woman in a brand new sport in a country that not only has no support for that kind of sport, but doesn’t even have paddle boarding equipment for sale is very hard! And it is even harder for a young woman in a country that does not support women participating in most sports.
One year ago, she applied for the Community Solutions Program for the Change Makers, which is an exchange program between the U.S.A and Egypt. After going through many application screenings and many interviews. She was chosen from 8500 applicants from all over the world. She is the youngest Egyptian in this program and the only one who focuses on sports for development and empowerment of women. This how Nour ended up in San Francisco.
When Nour arrived in San Francisco, she had no contacts in the SUP World. She got on the internet and looked up paddleboard shops in the area. She ended up taking a bus to 101Surf Sports in San Rafael, not even knowing much about the shop, and showed up to ask about paddling with them. At that point in time, Nour had never even touched a hard paddleboard. Fortunately, David Wells, the owner, took a personal interest in working with her, as well as introducing her to Jen Fuller and Mike Wang. She has been receiving extensive training from David and Jen and now will also be paddling with Mike’s Paddle.
We are all helping to prepare and support Nour to be ready for the upcoming 2022 ISA World StandUp Paddle and Paddleboard Championship in Puerto Rico this October. Nour traveled 7,447 miles between Cairo and San Francisco to gain new skills. She will l be the first Egyptian, African and Arab woman in all history to paddle with the international surfing associations in the U.S.A.
