E-news | August 2007
Hands Along the Nile Development Services, Inc.

HANDS Partner Offers Care to Sudanese Refugees in Egypt

The Center for Hope and a Cure provides dental care to the Egyptian poor and to Sudanese refugees

One of HANDS' partners in Egypt, the Center for Hope and a Cure in Alexandria, has been providing health care to underprivileged people in their community for many years. Started twenty years ago as a small apartment office, it grew to become a five-story medical center, where urban poor can seek the help they need at a low cost or in some cases free of charge. Today, it treats about 900 people per month.
 
This center has also been one of the rare places where Sudanese refugees are able to seek free medical care. Each month, the center treats about 80 Sudanese patients. Services include surgical operations, assistance with child birth, distributing eye glasses and medicine and much more.
 
The clinic also provides good quality dental care to the poor, including refugees. Considering the high rates of Hepatitis C among these groups, it is very important to have hygienic and well-equiped facilities where such patients are treated, to prevent further spread of the virus. The clinic needs to renew its equipment in order to maintain its standards of hygiene and quality of care. The total cost of  getting the necessary equipment is $11,000. So far, we have raised $7,000. Please consider contributing to this worthy cause by helping us raise the remaining $4,000, which will help pay for an X-ray unit and an autoclave (sterilizer). 
The staff of the dental clinic at the Center for Hope and a Cure
 

 

Fact checker
Sudanese in Egypt
 
Exact number not known
 
Ministry of Labor estimates 2-5 million 
 
Majority of refugees are from mainly Christian/animist South
 
Approximately 13,400 recognised as refugees by UNHCR
 
 
Approximately 60,000 applied for refugee status 1996-2005

The Status of Sudanese Refuges in Egypt

Thousands of people come to Egypt each year, fleeing the wars and bloody conflicts in their home countries - Sudan, Somalia, Palestine, Iraq and others. Most of them apply for refugee status or asylum through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Cairo. By far, the greatest number of refuges coming to Egypt are those fleeing the violence of the longest civil war in the 20th century, fought in Sudan for decades.
 
There are no exact data on the number of Sudanese living currently in Egypt. Estimates range from 1 to 5 million people. Although many Sudanese are in the country illegally, arriving on tourist visas and staying for economic reasons, thousands came as legitimate refugees, forced to leave their homes because of the war.

The UNHCR office in Cairo decides on the status of the applications of refugees or asylum seekers. Those granted the status of refugee can receive some assistance, such as access to health and education services and possible re-settlement in a third country. This process is about seven months long and complicated. Over the years, fewer and fewer applications have been approved. For example, in 2002 only 24% of the Sudanese applying to the UNCHR were recognized as refugees. Less than 50% of refugees were resettled to another country. By 2004, the UNHCR halted refugee determinations after the Sudanese peace accords and ceased considerations of applications by Sudanese for resettlement abroad. Thousands of people found themselves stranded in Egypt, unable to move forward into the future, but hesitant to return to Sudan for fear of new violence or having lost everything in war.
 
In 2005, there were 24,000 officially registered Sudanese living in Egypt (mostly in urban areas). They face challenging conditions, in a country where resources are already very limited and twenty million of its own citizens live below the poverty line. As one could expect, in such circumstances, the relationship between the locals and the Sudanese has been growing increasingly uneasy. The American University in Cairo released a report in July 2006 pointing out that the migrants from Sudan, regardless of their official status, face unemployment, poor housing, limited access to health and education and racial discrimination.
 
If you would like to make a contribution to support the dental clinic at the Center for Hope and a Cure, and in that way assist this place that opens its' doors and hearts to the poor and to Sudanese refugees, please click on the link below to see various ways to donate:

Please specify that your donation is for the Dental Clinic in Alexandria. 

HANDS is an American organization working to develop partnerships between Americans and Egyptians to increase intercultural understanding and support community development in Egypt. To learn more about us, please visit our web site: www.handsalongthenile.org. You received this email because your address is on our mailing list. If you do not wish to receive annoucements from HANDS, please click on the link below to unsuscribe.
© 2007 Hands Along the Nile Development Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.