Micro Finances

Street Children

Vocational training

Women Empowerment

MICRO FINANCES

Caritas-Egypt applies the Chinese proverb: it is better to give a fishing-rod to those who are hungry instead of giving them fishes. The fishing-rod can provide them with a lot of fishes, while they preserve their dignity… This proverb is perfectly applied to micro-projects that help to alleviate the unemployment crisis, by giving small loans to execute a useful project for the benefit of a family composed of a big number of members. Simultaneously, these projects provide many employment opportunities.

Examples of accomplishments of the sector: Training the personnel including technicians, accountants, treasurers and animators of programs aiming to improve the skills of workers and to enhance their technical abilities, to ensure a better performance. Training sessions were organized to achieve these objectives.
Evaluation of the technical, accounting, on field follow up, economic feasibility studies, monetary flux and funds transactions. Objective: ensure maintaining this humanitarian service. Studies of these projects and their follow up on field were achieved by a team who evaluate the value of loans and actual financing needed by these projects, as well as their impact on the socio-economical conditions of families which benefit from these loans.
The positive efforts of this project allowed the signature of an agreement entitled “New Horizons” between the Social Fund for Development and Caritas Egypt. Objective: financing 13.860 micro-projects during 5 years in five governorates: Cairo, Minia, Assiut, Sohag and Qena ( Luxor), starting from the 1st of October 2004. The age of beneficiaries of loans varies from 21 to 55 years. Animators and a team of technicians were assigned in the 5 governorates. The centers were equipped with furniture and electronic devices.
This agreement provided 85 permanent jobs.
 

STREET CHILDREN

Background

Starting from the mid 90's, street children have become a tangible phenomenon in all the major cities of Egypt, and still their number is rising. There are no official statistics but estimates range from 2 millions to 90 000. This confusion is partly due to the different definitions given to what constitutes a street child. Broader, more inclusive definitions of street children always make the estimates higher than narrower more specific definitions.
 

There are several factors that lead to the rise of the street children phenomenon in Egypt. The main reasons are linked to the social and economic degradation of urban areas. 90% of all street children in Egypt come from the poor neighborhoods in urban areas. The immediate factors that push the children into the streets are: abuse by family members or employers, neglect (due to family size, low income and family breakdown), dropping out of school, loss of job.
In their daily life street children are exposed to a myriad of problems and dangers. Deprived of a stable home and caring parents they are vulnerable to all sorts of violence and abuse (sexual, physical or emotional). They often suffer from malnutrition, are much more exposed to accidents and disease, and are easy targets to be used in trafficking. To escape their terrible living conditions full of misery, hunger, fear, insecurity, prostitution, many of them take drugs or sniff glue - a more accessible, less expensive substitute.
Moreover, they are marginalized by society that considers them as a threat and stigmatizes them as petty thieves. The law in Egypt sanctions vagrancy; therefore, street children are effectively outlaws that may be arrested even when not guilty of a crime.
It is very hard for street children to reintegrate society. They are outside the educational system and most of them are illiterate and have no qualifications. Most of them do not even have an ID or a birth certificate. This makes it increasingly hard for them to defend their rights or to find a rewarding job.
Objective
Overall Goal:
The street children phenomenon in Egypt regresses in a significant and lasting manner.
Specific objectives:
The children accommodated are prepared for social insertion.
The street children reintegrate their families.
Social organizations improve their intervention in favor of street children in Egypt.

Areas and Beneficiaries:
The direct beneficiaries of the project are:
Children abandoned to themselves in the streets of Cairo and Alexandria.
The families of the children attending the centers.
The personnel working for Caritas, state institutions and other NGOs.

Activities
Day Care Centers: Alexandria and Cairo
Caritas Alexandria and Cairo have now been working with street children for more than four years. In our 'Day Care Centers', the street children can find a refuge from the dangers of street life. The center provides them with a warm friendly environment, where the children can freely come and go whenever in need of something, for advice or simply to have a chat with the social workers. We try to assist both the emotional and physical needs of the children.
On top of shelter and affection, the centers provide for a wide variety of services and activities, such as: Arabic classes in reading/writing, vocational training, a substantial meal, medical assistance, various recreational activities, clothing, psychological therapy, and many more. Through these activities we hope to give the street children a dignified life and the means to build a better future for themselves.
Street Project
Our new initiative is to stretch the work of Caritas further than the centers out into the streets of Cairo and Alexandria. Social workers will head for the areas of Cairo and Alexandria where the majority of street children are known to be located and they will make a contact with the children. This initiative is intended for those children who, for whatever reason, do not want to come to the centers. The social workers bring out the assistance and activities to the children directly into the streets. The children may gather around the social workers under a lamp post where he may: read to them educational stories, play games with them, or let them draw or paint, etc. This has two main advantages: firstly it builds a relationship of trust between the children and the social workers that may help in convincing more children to come to the centres; secondly the activities take place in the open, creating awareness in the general public who are able to see with their own eyes that the street children are like all others.
Night Shelter ( Alexandria only)
The night centre or ‘shelter’ is an establishment where children can temporarily live in. Unlike the day centre, it is open 24 hours a day accommodating children also during the night and giving them a place to sleep. The shelter is only a transitional phase for the children; it hospitalizes them for a period between 6 and 9 months during which the social workers will try to contact the families. Not all children are willing or capable of living in the shelter as most of them, being accustomed to the absolute freedom and lawlessness of the streets, are not prepared to accept the rules and discipline of an institution such as the shelter. Street Children have been conditioned to take care of themselves since a young age, so they are suspicious of and do not easily accept any authority or control. Hence, they often prefer the street life where they can sleep when they want, eat what they want, smoke and make use of the drugs to which they are addicted. The child needs to be rehabilitated before he is able to accept rules, thus most of them will only be willing to come to the day care center where they are able to come and go and are still free to do what they want after the closing hour.
To substitute the shelter, those children who are ready for integration are transferred to Social Protection Institutions in Cairo, namely: the Pedagogic Institution in Guiza for boys and the Institution for Girls in Agouza.

At Caritas we do what we can to prepare the street children for social insertion. We try to identify and localize the families of the children and attempt to reconcile them with the child, should the child concerned want to reestablish relations with his family. We then monitor and assist the families by giving them advise and by addressing them to competent social organisms in order to consolidate the reintegration of the child and prevent relapses. In some cases we also give needy families financial support by means of micro credit loans.
Our literacy classes and vocational training are aimed at teaching the children the basic skills they need to find a job of their liking. The social workers ensure that the children acquire their birth certificate and ID and they keep a professional file for each of the children. This allows the children to be regularly employed. The young adults amongst them will also be able to create their own income activity and Caritas put a loan of up to 4000 LE (615 EURO-US$695) to get them starting their own business.
Simultaneously, we also try to organize awareness activities to sensitize the general public to the issue of street children. We try to change the mentality of the people and erase the prejudices they have about street children so that they may accept them and live alongside them. To do this we engage in several activities: organize workshops for the media, the social workers of governmental institutions, psychiatrists, night supervisors, have open door days, and widespread information brochures.
 

Achievements
Between 2000 and 2004, as many as 868 needy children, from the age of 6 to 15, have visited the centers and benefited from their services. 223 of them are regulars that continue to receive services. 104 children were reintegrated into their families and continue to be followed by our social workers who monitor their integration. 25 children regularly attend the night center. These figures show how successful the centers have been in assisting children. It has had a significant impact on the lives of hundreds of children to give them some of the attention that normal children of their age normally take for granted

 

Vocational training

Since its establishment in 1989, the Sector aims to study and analyze the problems faced by youth, particularly the aspect of unemployment. The Sector focused its attention on dealing with this problem by vocational and human formation of youth for many professions and jobs. This will be useful for them and for their relatives. The Sector not only cares about their training, but it also follows, guides and helps them after their graduation.

  The Vocational training Sector of Great Cairo includes the centers of Maarouf, Oussim, Kafr El-Sissi at the Pyramids. The Sector of Upper Egypt includes the centers of Minia and Sohag.

Important achievements 

·          Centre of Maarouf teaches electronics (1^st and 2^nd levels), computer, maintenance, assembling & programming of Computers, maintenance and repair of mobiles.

·          Centre of Oussim organizes sessions in motors rewiring and computer.  It has also a mobile workshop for training on household electricity.

·          Centre of Kafr el Sissi provides training sessions in the following sectors: refrigeration and air condition, household electricity, maintenance and repair of mobiles, full automatic washing machines, motors rewiring, maintenance of household equipment, electronics, maintenance of computers, leather crafts and teaching English.

·          Minia Centre provides training sessions in the following sectors: refrigeration and air condition, household electricity, full automatic washing machines, motors rewiring, maintenance of household equipment.

·          Minia Centre provides training sessions in the following sectors: refrigeration and air condition, household electricity, maintenance and repair of mobiles, full automatic washing machines, motors rewiring, maintenance of household equipment.

  Impact of the Centers on the trainees and the community

  The Centers contribute to facing the problem of unemployment, improving the technical and professional skills on the job market, spreading the spirit of Caritas consisting of humanitarian action, working with honesty, in a precise way and with high skill. This spirit enhances cooperation, charity and national unity among the trainees, through the human formation programs achieved in the sessions. This fact is proved by the appreciation shown by the organizations, associations and governmental institutions concerned by the problem of unemployment.

Overall goal
 

Empower & Enhance Women’s role in villages and rural areas

Objectives

• To strengthen the administrative and managerial capabilities of women development clubs.

• To utilize the women development clubs as focal points to lead the development role of woman in the village.

• Establishment of executive office members (EOM) and build their administrative and managerial capacities.

• The capacity building of community health workers (CHWs) and selected women’s cadres in rural health units.

• Illiteracy elimination for girls and women at the clubs.

• To design and implement a skill-based awareness program among club members, in issues related to woman and child welfare, woman socio-economic empowerment and environment.

• Issues Covered

• Socio-Economic

• Health

• Environment

This program serves 11 clubs in 11 different villages, the number of beneficiaries around 1000 women villagers.
It provides Capacity building through (workshops, seminars, unanimous meetings, training program for EOMs).

• The club realized the problems that these women face & succeeded to solve some of them, mainly utilizing the villagers own capacities, and some of their achievements are: illiteracy elimination, extracting Birth certificates & IDs , implantation, alternatives for sewage systems (for example the usage of wells), pavement of some of the main roads in the villages, contacting key responsible persons to provide medical convoys , establishment of nursery classes at the clubs.

• There is also a close collaboration between this program and the small projects program to provide loans for women to be able to generate income to support their families.