Background

In Egypt, under Article No 341, defaulting on a loan is a criminal act that carries a prison sentence. Every year tens of thousands of women are sent to prison for defaulting on loans borrowed for a few hundred dollars. The punishment is severe to deter people from taking loans. However, many of women who borrow money are desperate, because they need to pay for life-saving surgeries, family emergencies, to buy medicine, or start a business. Even worse, there are loan officers who prey on these women, getting them to sign contracts they don’t understand or even fraudulently claiming that the installments have never been paid. Prison is not the answer to this problem. This is a social problem with far-reaching consequences. These women are separated from their children, which often leads these kids falling between the cracks and turning to crime and drugs from a young age.

Describe the creative idea

Breakchains with Blockchain is the first NFT collection that frees women from prison sentences. To raise awareness about a topic no one cares about, we jumped on the trend everyone is talking about, NFTs.Working with international artists, an NFT collection was created and released on the Blockchain, each piece inspired by the story of a woman sentenced to prison for defaulting on a loan and priced at the amount needed to pay off her debt. With every piece sold, awareness around this topic spreads, and a woman is freed from her sentence.

Describe the strategy

Today we value the mundane, easily spending hundreds of dollars on clothing and electronics and now millions on a few lines of code. To raise awareness about a topic that no one talks about, we wanted to jump on a topic that everyone is talking about, NFTs. Breakchains with Blockchain is an art collection that gives human value to a trending topic. Through pieces of art, Breakchains with Blockchain raises awareness about Al Gharemaat, women imprisoned for defaulting loans of a few hundred dollars borrowed for their families. The campaign invites people who spend millions on Bored Apes or Crypto Punks to spend a fraction of that on NFTs priced at the exact amount to pay off debts and free a woman from a prison sentence.

Describe the execution 

Breakchains with Blockchain was launched on 21st March 2022 – Mother’s Day in Egypt. The campaign went live with an NFT collection released on the Blockchain platform, Opensea.io. This campaign combined the emotional and technological. Interviews were filmed with Al Gharemaat, allowing their voices to be heard. From these stories, international artists created NFTs priced at the amount needed to pay off their debts and free them from their prison sentences. The NFT collection was displayed on our campaign website and published in Arabic and English. We promoted the NFTs on social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & Instagram), PR, and our campaign website. By communicating in Arabic, we connected with the Egyptian audience, and in English, we attracted the attention of the world. The hard work doesn’t stop here, the NGO is continuing to ensure there is rehabilitation & education, so they do not end up in this situation again.