But she showed major interest in environmental solutions and how engineers can solve several pressing problems without adding another problem or affecting our environment. “The idea started to shape and evolve over the years until it settled on a social enterprise that designs and builds cost-effective and environment-friendly solutions for different segments of the community to create a real community development approach,” Rostom says of what she later called Hand Over.
Hand Over is a social business where Rostom’s team designs and builds cost-effective and environment-friendly spaces for different segments of the community. “Our main aim is to revolutionize the construction industry and introduce a convenient alternative that mainly depends on local and natural materials, which is the Earth construction technique and also to create a model that could be replicated and used to build sustainable communities,” adds Rostom.
Hand Over’s clientele is divided among the three tracks that they work in; in the community development track, where they target donor agencies, non-profits, local initiatives, and individuals. In the commercial track, where they target land owners, developers and governmental entities, and in the educational track, where there are the educational institutes, students and young practitioners.
The Cairo-based initiative also works in different regions across the country and they are currently planning for a couple of workshops and projects in other countries in the MENA region.
“We are a for-profit company so we depend on our projects and services to sustain our expenses. As I mentioned earlier, we target several clients and several segments. Our business model is mainly designed to allow us to offer and conduct community development projects from the for-profit and educational projects that we conduct,” Rostom notes.
But that doesn’t stop Rostom from allocating a part of her work to transfer her knowledge to students and young practitioners and also to labors in the regions that they work in. “We train the younger generation and the labor force on the techniques we use so they can benefit from our experience and take it from there,” she remarks.
