Poverty in Sinai
One of the enduring memories I have following making a successful series of films throughout the many countries of the Middle East, was time spent in a black goat hair tent belonging to a Bedouin family, led by the family patriarch. Without translators, we communicated well, as he explained his life travelling through the Sinai, with his family and herds of sheep and goats that foraged among the rocks for a bite to eat.
They were poor, subsistence people, among Egypt’s poorest rural populations, including Sinai’s 22,000 Bedouin population, many of whom are failing to benefit from Egypt’s booming tourist economy.
Now the The European Commission (EC) has awarded US$74.2 million for a landmark development project in Egypt’s South Sinai Governorate.
The aid will target some of The Sinai peninsula, which returned to Egypt from Israel after the 1979 Camp David Accord, has witnessed rapid development since then in the tourism sector, which dominates the region’s economy.
Much of the Bedouin population is not officially registered with the state, and has little access to education or healthcare with illiteracy is as high as 90 per cent amongst some sectors of the Bedouin population.
Poverty alleviation and social development projects will be executed through local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
A decade of drought and declining health and nutritional standards means the Sinai Bedouins are living in extreme poverty.
Sinai’s 12 Bedouin tribes will benefit from aid for water, agriculture, livestock, handicrafts and ecotourism projects.
REV THE HON. DR GORDON MOYES, A.C., M.L.C..