Freelance work isn’t just about doing jobs. It’s about making connections with people, brands, organizations, cultures, and countries.
Recently Al7arefa got a project that reflected this idea of connecting people and cultures.
The representative of Spain’s LaLiga (The Spanish Football League) in Egypt was on the lookout for a graphic designer for a special project.
A little search brought them to Al7arefa and quickly they connected with one of Al7arefa’s freelancers.
On Sunday, 21 February 2021, which coincides with International Mother Tongue Day, LaLiga in Egypt, in cooperation with the Instituto Cervantes and the Spanish Embassy in Egypt, unveiled the several-months-long project: A Spanish-Arabic Dictionary for Football Terms.
To learn more about how this project came to be, Al7arefa sat with LaLiga’s delegate in Egypt Juan Fuentes Fernandez.
Making the connection
In terms of how Mr. Fernandez discovered Al7arefa’s platform for freelancers, he said he’d resorted to Google and Al7arefa was one of the top platforms that popped up in his search.
In other words, our search engine optimization (SEO) efforts are paying off!
At the moment, Al7arefa ranks on the first page of Google among the top 3 positions. Organically!
Speaking about the project by LaLiga, Instituto Cervantes, and the Spanish Embassy in Egypt, Mr. Fernandez explained that the three entities wanted to create a Spanish-Arabic dictionary of football terms.
The LaLiga and the Instituto Cervantes had already created two similar dictionaries, one in Malaysian and one in Chinese. He added that the Arabic dictionary was the third one to be launched, with more languages to come.
But why would LaLiga opt for a freelancer over an agency?
“Cost was an issue for this project and I wanted someone to work on a freelance basis with me to finalize the work and design,” Mr. Fernandez explained.
“I found a great freelancer on Al7arefa and though Zeinab didn’t speak Spanish, she did a great job working on the Spanish-Arabic football dictionary,” he said.
The freelancing scene in Egypt and Europe
Freelancing, or rather the gig economy, maybe a new term in the Egyptian market but it’s not in the US and Europe.
However, in the Middle East in general and in Egypt in particular, the idea of freelancing and working remotely became the new normal after the coronavirus pandemic emerged in early 2020.
Now more people are interested in working from home and many are exploring the freelance-way-of-life.
At Al7arefa, we were curious about how the gig economy was doing in Spain and Mr. Fernandez confirmed our thoughts that with more people staying at home because of the pandemic, many have been taking on freelance gigs across Europe.
LaLiga’s review of Al7arefa
In terms of LaLiga’s project with Al7arefa, the overall work of local Egyptian talents, and the outcome of the Spanish-Arabic football dictionary, Mr. Fernandez said he was “super happy” with the work done and with the continuous follow-up he got from Al7arefa’s team.
LaLiga’s delegate in Egypt added that he was planning to collaborate with more of Al7arefa’s network of freelancers in the near future.
“I’ll definitely recommend Al7arefa to others. I’m already doing that,” Mr. Fernandez said, adding that there was a good chance that other businesses in Spain and Europe would be interested in working with Egyptian freelancers.
Next Steps
If you’re not familiar with Al7arefa, we’re a platform that connects freelancers with employers across the MENA region and now in Europe as well.
Businesses log on to Al7arefa.com and post the jobs they need filled. These can be full-time or part-time remote jobs or freelance opportunities.
At the same time, freelancers and remote workers can log on to Al7arefa and submit their proposals for these jobs.
Once a match is made, Al7arefa’s team takes on the responsibility of connecting clients with freelancers and remote workers and ensure that the work is done in a professional manner.
Want to hire a freelancer? Create a free profile on Al7arefa and post your job today.
Further reading
Discover the 7 Tips to Effectively Manage a Remote Team
Looking for freelancers? Here are tips on how to hire a freelance designer, a freelance web developer, and a freelance writer.
Nada Sobhi
Freelance B2B SaaS Copywriter and Blogger focused on Digital Marketing, Business, Green Technology, and HR; Digital Marketer; Translator. When she’s not working, you can find Nada buried in a book or 3!