Village Partnership: Combating Child Labor in Salam City, Cairo

The Village Partnership is a development program HANDS has been involved with for more than eight years. It is implemented in various urban slums and rural areas in Cairo and Upper Egypt, one area at a time. The program aims to support locally initiated projects that bring improvements in health, education, housing and environment, agriculture, economic assistance and human rights. It is based on the understanding that poverty is a complex social phenomenon that must be addressed through an integrated approach combining various development activities in a targeted community and engaging the active participation of beneficiaries. After the success in the village of Jafaar and the continued improvements in El Ashmoneen and Estable Antar, HANDS, in collaboration with Egyptian partner organization, CEOSS (Presbyterian Organization for Social Services), has begun a new project to combat child labor in the underdeveloped area of Cairo, Salam City.

Salam City is located on the outskirts of Cairo and contains and estimated 5,000 workshops employing approximately 20,000 children in car-painting, mechanics, carpentry, welding, and other labor-intensive professions. In addition to dangerous work conditions, childern in these workshops often face mistreatment by employers. They frequently work longer hours than the legal limit, do not receive promised daily meals, and are sometimes even exposed to physical abuse. Very often, these childern drop out of school because of their work commitments. Without education, their choices for the future remain limited.

The project in Salam City is implemented in partnership with local community development association, the Al Abd Association for Comprehensive Development. It focuses on improving the lives of these child laborers through several programs:

• Re-enrollment in school; if needed, a small scholarship is provided to the family to cover the costs of sending their child to school
• Literacy classes for children who are unable to reenter school
• New job training to provide children with the skills they need to transfer to safer and better paying jobs
• The purchase of safety equipment for the workshops
• Health services and checkups
• Outings to sites around Egypt, allowing children the opportunity to see sites they would otherwise not be able to enjoy
• Informing the children of their rights as human beings and as children

With your help HANDS can continue to improve the lives of the child laborers of Salam City.

• A generous gift of $33 will allow our partners to re-enroll a child in school.
• $110 can pay for literacy classes for a working child for one year.
• $330 will allow 30 children to attend a one day field trip.

If you would like to help please visit our donation page by clicking here. HANDS looks forward to helping an even larger group of working children in Salam City learn to read, write, play, and plan for their future.

- To learn more about past village partnerships please click here