Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is holding a business mission to Egypt on November 13 and 14, led by foreign minister Aloysio Nunes and backed by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. The plan is to have executives from 20 to 25 Brazilian companies in different industries meet up with importers and exporters in Egypt. “Egypt is a country that we do significant trade with, but it falls short of what it could be,” the director of the Ministry’s Commercial Promotion and Investments Department, ambassador Orlando Leite Ribeiro said. He visited the offices of the Arab Chamber in São Paulo to discuss aspects of the mission with CEO Michel Alaby and International Relations vice president and ambassador Osmar Chohfi. “There's a strong potential for trade to increase," Ribeiro asserted.

And Arab Chamber president Rubens Hannun was in Damascus, Syria from Saturday (15) to Monday (17) to meet with several authorities and corporate leaders, in a bid to identify needs that Brazil could meet. “There are many opportunities and they (Syrians) are very open to Brazil,” said Hannun. Next week, ANBA will feature a series of articles on the subject.

ANBA's The Arabs and Me section features an account from pedagogue Elizabeth Camasmie Zogbi, who's of Syrian and Lebanese descent and chairs the Mão Branca charity for the elderly. “We have had great donors, all of the pavilions at headquarters, in Santo Amaro, were built with donations, but today it’s getting harder and harder. There isn’t in Brazil a donation culture, especially to the elderly, it’s hard to make people and companies aware of how important their donations are,” she told ANBA's Isaura Daniel.