Egypt Rehabilitation Program: Officials, NGOs support street children in ongoing campaign
Updated 18:11, 11-Jun-2019
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Thousands of Egyptian children are estimated to be living on the streets. The North African nation has brought officials and NGO workers together in a campaign which aims to provide full assistance to street children. Here's Adel EL Mahrouky with more.
The only statistics about street children in Egypt is five years old. It has estimated some 20 thousand homeless children distributed in 10 governorships, the number is expected to have become much bigger. The nation's social solidarity ministry has been leading a massive campaign to rehabilitate street children for more than two years.
HAZEL EL MALLAH SPOKESPERSON, 'CHILDREN WITHOUT SHELTER' PROGRAM "We've assisted 19 thousand children during the last period. 1,500 children have been rehabilitated in social care organizations. Some other children have been reunited with their families. Unfortunately, many families are not capable of dealing with their children after that experience. So for a limited period, we put them in foster homes until we give training for the families and manage each case."
17 teams roam Egyptian cities almost on daily basis. Each team is made up of six health and psychological professionals to assist each case. Yet major challenges persist.
HAZEL EL MALLAH SPOKESPERSON, 'CHILDREN WITHOUT SHELTER' PROGRAM "Our main challenge is beggars. Compassion is not always good. When people start giving children money aiming to assist them, it's a disaster. The result is that children make a lot of money by staying in the street. To help, people should call Children without shelter campaign to report the location of street children, they can donate money to our centers, that's the best way to help."
The ministry of social solidarity is allocating funds to renovate its foster homes and to establish new ones across Egypt. In 2019 Children without shelter campaign has extended its activities to four new governorships.
ADEL EL MAHROUKY CAIRO "There are no laws yet in Egypt that criminalize certain behavior towards street children, leaving them vulnerable to many abusers. The civil society including NGOs are heavily engaged to assist the government in its national campaign to make Egyptian streets free from street children. Adel EL Mahrouky, CGTN, CA."