The Street Children of Egypt
The United Nations Children’s Fund, better known as “UNICEF”, is concerned about the welfare and future of all the world’s children. It affirms the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and seeks equality for all who are discriminated against. It has recently conducted studies that found there are up to one million children living on the streets in the cities of Egypt, although it is a social problem that is difficult to quantify. Whatever the actual number, it is known to be vast and growing. Most of these abandoned children are in Cairo and Alexandria.
Homeless children live harrowing lives, dangerous and unhealthy in every way. They are deprived of the fulfilment of their basic needs for family life, shelter, protection, guidance, love and supervision, and are exposed to the worst side of adult behaviour. For many of them their need to survive means they must resort to begging, and they are exploited in various ways, by the adults they encounter daily.
Children on the street are known to suffer from many diseases of malnutrition and infection such as anaemia, cholera and tuberculosis, and are at ongoing risk of sexually transmitted diseases. They are also exposed to a variety of toxins in their environment and in the food they are able to obtain. They are at risk from abuse, and surveys have shown that 86% of them identify ‘violence’ as a major problem in their lives. Another survey showed the 50% had been subjected to some form of rape. Children living on the streets need to be recognised as victims who need assistance, rather than being treated as criminals, as they are now.
UNICEF is one agency of many working for the protection of Egyptian children. Another is the Egyptian Association for the Protection of Children that works to improve the lives of street children, and to educate and empower boys and girls, from their centres in Alexandria and Oena. Their outreach is based on reception centres providing street children with meals, and a safe place to rest, or play. CARITAS, the Catholic agency for international development, and the Hope Village Society based in Cairo, also support these excellent programs for street children. Together these organisations support the centres by training social workers about the rights of children and about the risks they face on the street. They also provide training to the children themselves, through the social workers. The centres provide health services to the children, from basic checkups to hospital referrals for the serious cases.
In June 2008 UNICEF joined with other non-governmental organisations under the umbrella of the National Foundation for Family and Community Development, to launch the Child Protection Program in Alexandria under the auspices of the Governor of Alexandria and the Bibliotheca Alexandra. This program deserves the support of all Egyptians, and we pray that it helps change the lives of these street children.