By: Reem Ghazal

As part of the university projects for second-year students at the Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University, Kanaan Kazem was interviewed. He was born in Gaza and his main job is in the ice cream business, or as it is called in Gaza, "al-Bouza," and currently, "Bouza wa Barrad" in Egypt.

He explained that the business began in Gaza in 1950 under his father, "Kazem," and that he started working with him in 1969. He was young at the time, and they began simply, without advanced tools or equipment. They acquired machines from Italy and other countries until they had many machines that could produce large quantities in a short time, unlike in the past.

Kanaan said, "We decided to work in Egypt because we are involuntarily present here and cannot return to Gaza, the home of our lives and work, where all the places, factories, and shops have been destroyed." He added that their time in exile had been long, so they decided to start from scratch by establishing a small project to produce ice cream, ice cream, and sweets so they could continue the work they had done since childhood.

 He continued: "We must complete the journey by working in the Arab Republic of Egypt, which we consider our second home. It is an extremely difficult experience to establish the project from scratch, even though it is a small shop." He went on to say that there are difficulties due to the unavailability of all the materials that were previously used in Gaza.

 Kanaan pointed out that we brought the “Barrad” to the Egyptian and Palestinian brothers in Egypt, especially for the Egyptian citizen who does not know it, but they know frozen juices like slush and smoothies, and it was not an easy stage to deliver a new product to the Egyptian public.

 He added: “It was a long journey to get customers to try the Barrad, and after trying it, they found it to be something new. Thank God, we succeeded in delivering the Barrad to the Egyptian public, who received great admiration, and this is considered a success for us.”