Plan Egypt Annual Progress Report 2009

A YEAR IN

EGYPT 09

SUMMARY REPORT

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GOOD REASONS why Plan works in Egypt

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• 42% of rural people do not have adequate sanitation facilities

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U. A. E. • A third of girls don’t go to secondary school

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• 18% of under-fives suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition

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Our priorities in Egypt

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• Protecting the health of new mothers and children under five

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• Supporting nursery education

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• Improving the quality of health and education services for children • Ensuring children have access to clean water and proper sanitation

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• Helping families increase their household incomes

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EGYPT FACTS UGANDA KENYA

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Economy: Egypt’s economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. One of the main

obstacles facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down of wealth to the middle and lower classes. Many Egyptians criticize their government for higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant.

Children conduct a youth parliament at their school.

A YEAR IN

EGYPT SUMMARY REPORT

09

FOCUS ON: CLEAN WATER AND PROPER SANITATION Children in the poorest parts of Egypt are growing up without decent sanitation and clean water. Living in such an unsafe environment breeds disease, makes children chronically ill and keeps them out of school.

Plan is working with families to increase access to safe water, proper sanitary facilities and waste disposal systems.

We aim to make sure more families understand the importance of good hygiene practices in protecting children’s health. We are also striving to give more families access to loans to repair their houses and improve their home environment.

AZZA’S NEW LIFE

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zza is 12 years old and remembers vividly how hard her mother used to work to make sure the family had enough water.

Women and girls attend a health awareness session.

The Bigger Picture

Plan is working with children, families and whole communities to address the problems that Egypt faces. This report can only tell a small part of that story. As a further insight, last year we also: • Conducted nearly 100 events with the International Labour Organisation to promote child protection, particularly that of street children • Worked with local partners to raise the standard of education for very young children by training nursery teachers • Checked 3,456 children for parasites and provided treatment for those who needed it • Supported training for 908 young women in work like hairdressing and shoe-making to help them increase their incomes.

Your support as a sponsor is crucial to achieving these positive results. So on behalf of the communities, partner organisations, and most of all the children we work with – thank you!

“Families feel a strong sense of responsibility for their water connection and want to ensure they can maintain it for generations to come.”

To learn more about Plan’s work in Egypt visit plan.org.au/ourwork/southernafrica/egypt

Produced for Egypt by the Australian National Office.

“Our mum had to fetch water from the far-away water pump,” says Azza, who lives in a rural community in Giza, northern Egypt. “She had to repeat the same journey three or four times a day to provide us with our daily use of drinking water.”

But worse would follow. As if the sheer, backbreaking toil of carrying heavy containers of water home wasn’t enough, the water wasn’t safe to drink. Azza explains: “We suffered from continuous stomach ache and diarrhoea. When we went to the doctor, he said: ‘This is because you drink contaminated water.’”

There are thousands of children like Azza in the poorest communities in Egypt. Diarrhoea, so easily treated in Britain, is a major health risk.

A lack of clean water quickly affects other areas of children’s lives too. Chronic illness keeps children out of school, denying them an education and a way out of poverty. When the toil became too much for Azza’s mother and the doctor ordered her to rest, Azza and her siblings saw their lives take a downwards turn. Tasked with the job of fetching water, Azza remembers: “We started to be late for school and were too tired to study in our lessons.”

Family involvement Everything changed when neighbours told Azza about a project to connect families in the village to clean water, run by Plan and the Community Development Association (CDA). This is a group of local people elected by the community to push forward their progress, working with organisations like Plan to find long-term solutions to the problems they face.

Plan’s close links with the community and their children is the key to the project’s success.

Families are keen to be involved in water projects from the very beginning; they feel a strong sense of responsibility for their water connection and want to ensure they can maintain it for generations to come.

Plan supports projects like this with funding and training, so that local people have the skills to manage the work once it is finished. Children are included in the process too, as Azza was to find out when her family approached the CDA for help.

“They provided us with the water meter, pipes and all the necessary materials,” she explains. “We did the digging and paid for the workers who fixed the pipes and finalised the work.”

Transforming lives The teamwork paid dividends. Villager OmKareem describes her new water connection as “the best thing that has ever happened to us.”

Another neighbour, Om-Rasha, says: “It made my children’s health much better and the household chores much easier.”

But if they are to protect their children’s health for years to come, families must understand how to sustain these benefits. So, Plan’s water and sanitation projects are backed up with training on hygiene and healthy behaviour. Azza’s mum used to store water in open containers, in which dirt and flies can gather.

Plan teaches families that a few simple changes can make a huge difference to their children’s lives.

For Azza, life has already changed beyond recognition. “My siblings and I are feeling much better now and do not suffer from stomach ache and diarrhoea any more,” she says. They’re back at school. There’s a new baby in the house. There’s new hope for the future.”

Some names have been changed for child protection

“We suffered from continuous stomach ache and diarrhoea.

When we went to the doctor, he said: ‘This is because you drink contaminated water’.”

plan.org.au