n 38, Street 6 - el maadi- Cairo
Cairo
Égypte
- Democracy and community development
- Environment/Sustainable development
- Human rights
- Youth and education
- Goal: Contributing to fight social exclusion of street children and youth in Egypt.
Social exclusion is a global phenomenon encountered in all major cities, all over the world, related to society’s mutation in urban contexts. As a matter of fact, traditional solidarities and social networks are not as strong in urban contexts as they are in rural areas; together with economic difficulties, social problems, anarchic urban development, all these global factors explain why some people are pushed to the margins of society and left without any support. When public protection and care policies are insufficient to anticipate this phenomenon, individual situations and histories (such as the lack of emotional support, psychological or behavior problems, family rejection, lack of self-confidence) explain why some of them gradually disconnect from society.
Fighting social exclusion therefore implies, both to offer an individual action to support those who are victims of social exclusion, and to work to influence the global factors that lead to this phenomenon: public insufficiencies and society’s rejection. Hence, fighting social exclusion is an ambitious goal that requires long-term strategies and actions so as to achieve an impact on the social exclusion process.
Specific Objectives of Project: to advance the rights and improve access to quality services for street children and youth in Cairo, Egypt
This objective is achieved by several missions:
Offering adapted and professional services. Ensuring the children and youth are offered medical, social and psychological care in their living environment is both a necessity to prevent the degradation of their state, and a decisive step to re-creating their confidence in society. Therefore, a presence in the streets of Cairo, offering professional adapted services that are tailored to their specific needs, is an essential part of all projects aiming at fighting social exclusion.
Transferring the expertise to other operational actors in Egypt. Developing partnerships with local actors and providing them with the adequate training and methodologies will contribute to a more solid intervention for street children and youth. It also contribute to a better mutual understanding and coordination between organization offering different services, from street level to rehabilitation services. Samusocial International, relying on a 14 year expertise working with street children and youth that was enriched with the 5 year specific experience in Cairo, will develop activities so as to transfer this expertise to other actors in Cairo and strengthen their capacities.
Networking and raising awareness among institutional partners and the public in general on the needs and obstacles faced by street children and youth in the process of building their links with society. Considering that fighting social exclusion implies an overall intervention, from prevention to rehabilitation, Samusocial International Egypt develops activities to raise awareness among stakeholders to meet the challenges faced during the process and to increase the possibility of tackling the root causes of this phenomenon. For this same purpose, Samusocial International builds strategic partnership agreements and participates in all relevant networks in order to develop joint actions to address the causes and consequences of the street children and youth phenomenon.
Activity 1 – Provide regular emergency care in the street to the most vulnerable children
Activity 2 – Following up each child’s individual project, all the way to rehabilitation into society when possible
Activity 3 - Transferring and disseminating Samusocial International’s methodology on street children issues and street work methodologies in Egypt
Activity 4 - Developing the visibility of the actions in favor of street children in Egypt
Being a part of Anna Lindh Network in Egypt will help us to realise one of our missions :
Transferring and disseminating Samusocial International’s methodology on street children issues and street work methodologies in Egypt
Samusocial International Egypte’s team has developed its practice of Samusocial methodology, has strengthened its understanding of street children and youth in Cairo and is recognized as a professional and specialized actor in Cairo. So as to share this expertise with other actors and to be able to respond to solicitations of training and other interventions in various schools and structures, three of the team members were identified in 2011 as Samusocial International Egypt’s trainers. They benefited from a trainer’s training in order to strengthen their pedagogic skills.
Samusocial International Egypte’s trainers will work on adapting materials and guidelines on Samusocial methodology for Egyptian actors. SSIEG trainers are able to select among these guidelines and documents the ones that are relevant to Egyptian structures and actions, and adapt them so as to be able to use them for its own trainings and interventions.
SSIEG trainers can carry out at least 6 sessions aiming at transferring the methodology to other actors. According to the needs identified within partner structures, these sessions can deal with approaching street children and youth, psycho-social integral care, care services concerning a particular pathology, group and territory analysis, follow-up tools and files for children and youth, individual case analysis, team coordination, emergency evaluation, legal support.
SSIEG wants to extend its network, to transfer and disseminate its methodology on street children issues and street work methodologies in Egypt and to struggle against the stigmatization of street children which is extremely high, and even worsened in the case of street girls. Especially under the current political unrests, false rumors of street children being manipulated by some political groups and using violence and unrest, have generated a misperception on the general population. Furthermore, street children have problems with police forces and are often detained, as most of the street children have no legal documents (such as ID’ s and Birth certificates) which is a factor of increased vulnerability considering the Egyptian Law makes it compulsory to carry identification documents.