Dakhleh Oasis Project: Towards a better future

Dakhleh Oasis Project needs your help! With no change in the policy of the Egyptian military authorities, the missions under the DOP banner cannot resume fieldwork and research, and this ill-fated spell has been going on for eight years already. This unfortunate situation results from the events following the Arab Spring and the reduced security in Egypt’s Western Desert ever since. The Project, however, consists of people, both non-Egyptians and some Egyptians, for whom DOP means either doing important research, or earning a living – the former abruptly stopped after the mentioned Revolution. With this campaign we ask you to help the Project cover its maintenance costs, as well as the costs of various tasks that can be realised despite the circumstances.

The Project’s mode of operation, since it was established in 1978, has always relied on the participating expeditions. As DOP owns a dig house in the heart of the oasis, the compound and the staff it employs have always been sustained financially by those missions conducting fieldwork and other research activities in Dakhleh. However, since no research is has been allowed in recent years, the expeditions no longer come to the oasis, and in consequence the whole cost of maintaining the house and of the Project’s other needs rely solely on private resources. Hence, more than 40 years of research and many promising studies yet to come are now at stake, because the growing costs of running DOP simply exceed our personal capabilities.

This is the reason we are launching an ongoing campaign, which – hopefully – will carry us through these difficult times. The increasing costs of conducting research in Egypt coupled with unstable currency rates and growing costs of materials, all add to our financial uncertainty. Our needs are substantial, because the Project – despite the lack of fieldwork – tries to be as active as possible in various fields. We thus intend to devote the donated funds to five different purposes:

• Dig House maintenance: For any project to function effectively in Egypt it requires a reliable base for its operations. We are fortunate in Dakhleh to have been allowed to construct one with all of the facilities we require, respecting local building traditions in mud brick. As a result, it needs constant maintenance (this includes, but is not limited to, bills, costs of repairs, and salaries for our Egyptian staff).
• Publications: The various DOP members are working hard in order to disseminate the results of their research. The general situation, however, is not conducive to applying for research grants, which could secure the funding of publications, but would usually require undertaking fieldwork. DOP has established its own monograph series with Oxbow Books, to which we always deliver camera-ready manuscripts, largely reducing the costs this way. Yet still, the expenses of publishing a book are simply too high for us (currently: £ 1500 per book + £ 600 for a 16-page colour spread).
• Supervision costs: We cannot carry out research, but – once in a while – some of us need to visit the oasis. For the Project’s house, although well taken care of by the local workers, has to be systematically checked. We deal with regular repairs, sometimes on a large scale, and we also need to show a continuing commitment to research in the oasis even if we cannot undertake fieldwork. Again, such costs have now to be covered with private funds, which, when happening on a regular basis, is simply hard to sustain. This is why we would like to direct a small share of the collected money to subsidise travel costs of delegated Project members in justified cases.
• Educational programmes: We plan to extend the Project’s activities to include also various educational programmes. These should be offered to the local communities of Dakhleh in the first place. We believe that through such awareness-rising initiatives we can help build a better future for the heritage and security of the ancient sites, which is regularly threatened. We intend to work with all age-groups, both in the dig house facilities and in the field, if allowed. Our first aim is to have our Discovering Dakhleh booklet translated into Arabic and disseminated among children and teachers in the oasis. As the campaign progresses, we intend to publish here regular updates detailing all our educational plans and initiatives.
• Fieldwork and research: Because we stay optimistic, we still hope that research in Dakhleh will soon become possible again. When that happens, some of the collected funds may be then used to cover the basic expenses related to re-launching selected research activities. The process of application for new scientific grants is usually a long one, thus the donated monies may prove to be crucial to start fieldwork while waiting for institutional subsidies.

In exchange for your kind donation, we offer various rewards, some of them unique. We also encourage you to support the Project with recurring donations. Even the smallest periodic donation will help us enormously.