{"id":1,"date":"2010-11-29T14:21:59","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T14:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hilarymunro.com\/?p=1"},"modified":"2011-08-22T19:37:36","modified_gmt":"2011-08-22T19:37:36","slug":"egyptian-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.HilaryMunro.com\/?p=1","title":{"rendered":"Tackling poverty Egyptian style"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently read this comment by Ahmed Kamaly, economics professor,\u00a0 American University of Cairo : \u201cThere has been \u2018no trickle down\u2019 to the bottom of society from the economic prosperity the upper class is revelling in.\u201d<\/em> Such a sweeping comment just begs to be challenged! <\/em><\/p>\n

The bottom of society has to be found around Istabl Antar, a Cairene slum community of 800,000 squatters in the centre of Cairo \u2013 not the only candidate in Cairo, but certainly up there with the worst of them. So I went there, and met with Yasmina Abou Youssef to talk about an NGO called Tawasol. \u00a0The Youssef\u2019s own a chain of hotels putting them firmly in the Egyptian upper class.<\/p>\n

Families in this area live in tiny, one-room homes. Employment comes from casual labour carrying heavy lumps of marble in the nearby factory or begging. Earnings from the children are essential to a family\u2019s survival \u2013 from working in the sweat shops, carpet-making shops or begging from a very young age.\u00a0 Until two years ago there was no school there, only a public one at the bottom of the hill with broken windows and a black painted wall with a frame masquerading as a blackboard \u2013 until last summer that is.\u00a0 Now Istabl Antar has a school,\u00a0 the public school has windows, doors and blackboards,\u00a0 and small shops and enterprises are setting up using micro-finance.\u00a0\u00a0 None of this is through a factory relocating, or help from the government.\u00a0 All of it comes from the NGO Tawasol.<\/p>\n

The school was set up using funds from the Cairo branch of the Egyptian Rotarians, and a Matching Grant from Rotary Club of Berlin-Nord, Germany.\u00a0 Yasmina\u2019s father is a member of the Cairo-Zamalek.\u00a0\u00a0 Coming from the wealthiest strata, and by using their connections with other wealthy Egyptians, Yasmina has been able to raise large amounts of money and attract volunteers.\u00a0 Substantive philanthropic assistance like this is replicated by many Egyptian families.<\/p>\n

I accept that it may not be quite what the professor at AUC was quantifying when he made his statement, but it is wealthy families directly assisting the poor,\u00a0 it is effective and it is sustainable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently read this comment by Ahmed Kamaly, economics professor,\u00a0 American University of Cairo : \u201cThere has been \u2018no trickle down\u2019 to the bottom of society from the economic prosperity the upper class is revelling in.\u201d Such a sweeping comment … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,16,17],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-egypt","tag-egypt-ngos","tag-egypt-poverty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.HilaryMunro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.HilaryMunro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.HilaryMunro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.HilaryMunro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.HilaryMunro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.HilaryMunro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205,"href":"https:\/\/www.HilaryMunro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.HilaryMunro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.HilaryMunro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.HilaryMunro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}