CAIRO, Egypt - Among the swirling crowds of Cairo, one hardly notices the small figures of children who call the streets their home. Adel is one of them. He left home at nine to escape a life of misery and violence.
"My father would beat me every day after he returned from work, even though I was doing everything around the house,” says Adel. “He always came home in a bad mood and would hit me with anything that came to hand. In the end, I couldn’t take it anymore.”
But the life he found on the streets was no better, Adel admits. Now after four years of a rootless, vulnerable existence, he longs to return home. “When I see other children on their way to school, I wish I could be like them. Here on the streets, I have no future,” Adel adds with a helpless shrug.
Adel’s story is typical of the estimated 1 million Egyptian children who spend most of their lives on the streets. But according to UNICEF Child Protection Officer Nadra Zaki, their plight has done little to stir the sympathy of ordinary Egyptians.
“Many people tend to see street children as little more than petty criminals, who fully deserve the harsh treatment that they get from the police and other authorities,” says Zaki.
“On the positive side, there is nowadays a clear awareness about the phenomenon of street children, about its causes and its characteristics. Now we need to think about the solutions, solutions that will give street boys and girls the protection they so badly need. And also solutions that will save them from resorting to the street in the first place. “
One encouraging sign of change is the work being done by NGOs like Hope Village Society, one of UNICEF’s key partners. At the Society’s centre in the working-class Cairo suburb of Rod El Farag, Adel is among a group of street children given the task of supporting other street children even more vulnerable than themselves. These "mentors" are taught the basics of first aid using a simple kit containing bandages, iodine and other essentials.
After dark the streets of downtown Cairo can be very dangerous, making street children more vulnerable to violence and abuse. It is at this time that Adel and the other street mentors may be called on to put their first-aid skills to use.
Adel keeps the first-aid kit with him at all times, ready for use whenever a fellow street child falls victim to an assault or suffers an injury. Although the kit is basic, it can be used to treat most minor wounds and prevent serious infection, at least until proper medical attention is administered at the centre the next day.
Hope Village Society has been working with street children for the past fifteen years, and with UNICEF since 2003. The collaboration produced the Street Children Health Risks Project, a preventive education program designed to help children living on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and Qena deal with the daily risks they face.
Hope Village coordinator Ashraf Abdel Moneim sees a bigger objective. “The approach we're trying is one that reaches out to street children and explores their potential,” she says. “In that way we hope we can find leaders who are able to help others.”
Changing the prevailing stereotypes about street children is also crucial. A clear sign that official attitudes are changing came in 2003 when a new National Strategy for the Protection, Rehabilitation and Reuniting of Street Children was unveiled by Egypt’s First Lady Suzanne Mubarak. This strategy gave the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) – Egypt’s main governmental agency dealing with child issues – a central role, coordinating the efforts of NGOs and relevant governmental organisations.
“The real significance of the strategy is that it adopts a rights-based approach,” says NCCM Secretary-General Moushira Khattab. “These children are not criminals but victims who have been deprived of their rights – the right to education, health and social care, and especially the right to family care. The strategy is based on changing the way in which society views these children.”
The strategy sets a number of objectives, among them, building an accurate database of children living in the streets and training social workers and others dealing with them. Another aim is to promote ways of drawing children away from the street and back to their homes, the most challenging task of all. Finally, the strategy looks to boost the role of NGOs, given their vital work bringing assistance to the children themselves.
The emerging partnership between government, NGOs and international agencies like UNICEF has encouraged hopes of an improvement in the situation of children like Adel.
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I think it is imperative for us to help. Especially those who are travelling or living in Egypt and are Humanitarians by nature. Put yourself in the shoes of that homeless child. They are deprived of everything. Of food, life, love, home, childhood, school.... family... they are really deprived of everything.
These children like any other children deserve better. I visited my personal financial advisor today, and we started having a conversation about orphans. Orphans can be children who lost both parents not just abandoned children. She told me today that 3 kids were helped ( orphans ) on her initiation in the following way.
You will be amazed!
She found a journalist who was willing to travel to their home personally. She refused to give the money to their uncle whom she believed would take the money from kids and buy himself a car. Instead, to protect them, she refused to give the money to social workers as she believed they would also take the money and share between each other - without giving it to children.
What she did?
She found a known journalist who is travelling to their city. She collected $5000 for 3 kids. (people donated money including herself) They live alone in the house. She told journalist to buy them a cow! The kids live in the village. She belived that food is #1 so if they have cow ( around $300 ) they could get milk, make cheese, and eventually calf. Smart girl, I am so proud of her.
She then decided to send them over the journalist each month $300 directly in their hands, and keep sending it until these $4,700 is spent.
Now, please don't tell me that you can't do it. Anyone can. You just need to want it. I am not living in Egypt so my opportunities are limited, however if I need to help out on my behalf, I will - if someone makes an excellent plan that will benefit the kids directly. People are not helping because they don't trust that their money will go to the needy.
Whoever do anything to make their life better will be rewarded ten fold.
Posts: 989 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Karah_Mia: What can we do to help? I am signing in.
Get in contact with Hope Village Society? Any contact information on the web?
I am still so stunned that this situation exists to this extent inside Egypt.
Maybe a year ago this subject was addressed here on ES and I mentioned I wasn't aware of that problem at all while living in Cairo.
Of course I saw kids badly dressed, begging for money, I saw handicapped people on the street doing the same and when I asked others (foreigners and Egyptians) they assured me that these people are taking care off and not to give them anything since they belong to some sort of "mafia".
Now to receive other - negative - information totally saddens me.
Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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EGYPT: Street children abandoned by the system
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
CAIRO, 13 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - It has been 10 years since Dalia ran away from her family in Manoufiya, in Egypt’s northern Delta region, and went to live in the fast-paced capital city of Cairo. Now 18 years old, she has become so accustomed to living on the streets that she no longer wants, or knows, how to live anywhere else. "I would rather live on the streets than go back to my family," Dalia said.She ran away from home after her parents divorced, shortly after which her father began beating her. "He would hang me upside down and torture me," she said. “I had to leave.” While Dalia’s chief reason for running away was domestic violence, aid workers say that poverty is also a major contributor to the phenomenon.
According to the UN’s 2005 Egypt Common Country Assessment, almost 17 percent of Egypt’s total population of some 77.5 million was living below the poverty line as of 2000.Salma Wahba, UNICEF Assistant Project Officer in the Adolescence department, conceded that poverty is a decisive factor in the majority of Egypt’s social dilemmas. She added that in the case of street children, poverty was commonly coupled with other problems, such as domestic abuse. Now, Dalia survives by selling packets of tissues to cars gridlocked in the city’s notorious traffic jams. With the money she earns, she can buy falafel sandwiches – a cheap, local meal consisting of chick peas and bread. "I know how to take care of myself," she asserted.She and her friends, a group of boys and girls also living on the streets, spend most of their day hawking cheap products or begging. At night, they sleep in a public garden which they use as an ad-hoc campground. "The key is to be together, to protect each other," Dalia said.Most runaway children end up living in big cities, such as Cairo or Egypt’s second largest city, Alexandria.
Once on the streets, however, children are often exposed to further abuses.“For girls, it’s sexual abuse, often of the most horrific nature,” said Simon Ingram, Communication Officer for UNICEF in Cairo. “The borderline between rape and prostitution is often quite thin.” The children themselves tell all manner of stories, he added. “Many street children bear scars from knife attacks, if not from sex attacks, from other street children trying to steal from them.” Dalia, for example, spoke of how she was once kidnapped. "They wanted to hurt me," she said, pointing to a scar on her left cheek – a jagged, permanent mark on her olive skin.
Discrimination under the law
Dalia has learned to protect herself not only from strangers, but also from the police, who have arrested her several times. She says that, while in police custody, she has been verbally abused and occasionally slapped in the face.Under Egypt’s current Child Law, any person under the age of 18 who solicits money in public, is engaged in immoral behaviour, or who lacks a permanent residence is defined as “vulnerable to delinquency.”This law, however, carries a value judgement, said Clarissa Bencomo, author of a 2003 report by New York-based lobby group Human Rights Watch, which described abuses against Egypt’s street children."The word ‘delinquency’ implies that these children are a social threat – thus, they are treated as if they were a threat to the social order," said Bencomo. She added that such perceptions led to frequent abuses against them."They’re considered ‘lost souls,’ and policemen often believe that abusing them will ‘set them straight,’" she said, noting that policemen were generally ill-equipped to deal with children.Bencomo emphasised, "These are just children in need of protection." According to Human Rights Watch, nearly 11,000 street children were arrested in Egypt in 2001.In response to the problem, the government-run National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) has held two workshops to train policemen on how to deal with homeless children.Somaya al-Alfy, head of the NCCM's street children division, said 200 policemen from all over the country have so far attended the workshops, which have been held for the past two years.Al-Alfy noted that the legal definition for homeless children is expected to be changed from “vulnerable to delinquency” to “vulnerable to danger.” The amendment is currently awaiting ratification by parliament.
Lost in the system
Despite these proposed changes, however, many Cairenes, while hoping to see the children off the streets, have simply lost hope in the system.Cairo resident Sherif Mansour, for example, recounted the time he handed a troublesome street girl over to a police officer who merely insulted her and dragged her into his car by the shirt."Two days later,” Mansour recalled, “she was on the streets again,” Theoretically, children picked up by police are turned over to a prosecutor, who quickly decides whether they should be released or handed over to an official foster home.According to Bencomo, however, this wasn’t always the case.
"Children quickly go back to the street," she said. “And the more they are recycled like this, the more they learn how to stay on the streets and away from juvenile detention or the possibility of being returned to their families.”No one from the Ministry of Interior was available to comment on the issue."The best thing now for street children is for the police to stop arresting them," Bencomo asserted.Precise statistical data on street children is scarce, and there is virtually no official information. "The government doesn’t make the numbers public because, officially, homelessness doesn’t exist in Egypt," said Bencomo.Al-Alfy noted that no surveys of street children had ever been conducted. "These children are highly mobile, and it’s difficult to get accurate information on their numbers," she explained.She pointed out, however, that the NCCM was planning to implement a survey in the near-term future.
More civil society involvement needed
While few organisations in Cairo or Alexandria have taken up the issue, a handful of NGOs and philanthropic groups are doing what they can. Eighteen years ago, for example, Sami Gabr and a group of businessmen set up a “Village of Hope” to provide food and shelter for children found on the street. The organisation currently runs 15 shelters and drop-in centres in and around Cairo."We have permanent shelters, temporary shelters and reception centres," Gabr said. The reception centres, open from 9.00am to 6.00pm everyday, provide a place where street children can go to seek help. "We take in girls between the ages of four and 18," said Mohammmed Fathy, who works in a drop-in centre for girls, located in a low-income district of the capital’s Giza district. He explained that girls visiting the centre can watch television, get free meals and receive medical assistance if needed.But when the centre closes in the evening, some of the children, like Dalia and her friends, prefer to go back to the street.
"The more time the child spends on the streets,” noted Fathy, “the more difficult it is for us to get them to a shelter or back to their homes." In an effort to provide medical aid to homeless children outside of the Cairo area, mobile units have been dispatched to areas where there are no reception centres.
In August 2005, The French NGO Medecines Du Monde (MDM), in cooperation with the Village of Hope, began a three-year project to provide mobile health-service units for homeless children. According to Isabelle Braund, MDM General Coordinator in Egypt, street children mainly suffer from skin diseases and respiratory complications, often the result of inhaling an industrial glue known locally as kola.Gabr explained that, by inhaling kola, which gives a brief but intense high, “children can survive the pain of being on the street." Despite the fact that some organisations are addressing the problem, though, aid workers and volunteers are quick to point out that more help is badly needed. "To be really effective, we need more organisations involved in this issue," said Gabr.
Posts: 2334 | Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Tigerlily: Get in contact with Hope Village Society? Any contact information on the web?
You know the "dm" drugstore chain? They cooperate with UNICEF and ASMAE in order to help Egyptian street children. You can contribute by buying their baby products (which are great and recommended by "Ökotest" anyway) – a percentage of the sales goes into the fund. Or you can donate money directly:
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I'd dare to advise khawagaa wives and love interests not to say "boo" about this issue to your in-laws.
The reaction I had to the street children epidemic was pretty much versed in this manner, "well she is an American woman. Wasn't a virgin when she married, not veiled, has a zambour, basically a stain; so she identifies with the deliquents."
My in-laws didn't understand that I sympathize with the street children, doesn't mean I am moral foul. In addition to how I treated the lower-classes as actual human beings. This also made me appear to be lacking virtue. My FIL understood, but my SIL and BIL were very upset.
If you have sympathy and feel for the impoverished or street kids plight, don't show it. Just show your support without the in-laws knowing.
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Automatic For The People: “Many people tend to see street children as little more than petty criminals, who fully deserve the harsh treatment that they get from the police and other authorities,” says Zaki.
Yeah but for some reason police immediately stop abusing or beating these children in front of a khawagaa like myself.
One police officer tried to explain to my SIL why khawagaas don't understand their methods of dealing with street kids.
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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So according to some helping homeless children in Egypt is not a good thing? That's excatly what many people in America think as well. Rich get richer and poor get poorer. Don't you think? Who cares about poor.
But I can't believe that world is so insensitive knowing that those children in any part of world, not just Egypt, are our future, and they will be one day adults no matter you help them or not, but what kind of adults if they are raised in such a cold world that's the question.
Posts: 989 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by ~Sharon Stone~: So according to some helping homeless children in Egypt is not a good thing? That's excatly what many people in America think as well. Rich get richer and poor get poorer. Don't you think? Who cares about poor.
One day my cousin tried to help this homeless boy, after narrating his long story she went to her dad and asked him to offer the little boy a work, he can work as ” office boy” so my uncle was like, “ are you going to pick a boy from the street, you are kidding” she begged him, and finally he agreed…he went to my uncle’s office, and my uncle told him, just clean your clothes and start from tomorrow…3 days passed,AND THE BOY NEVER WENT again and then telephoned my cousin,” 2bla Doha momken t2bleney 3end Eshta bta3 2l koshrey” miss Doha can you meet me at this koshrey shop, she wondered WHAT THE HELL FOR, the boy was like oh plzz I need to borrow money…finally she told him you can go to hell… Here another story, a divorced young lady having a little kid, she is almost homeless, and very poor, we decided to find work for here, as she used to work as a cook, I searched and finally someone told me, okay I need someone to work in the Kitchen and she will give her a good salary…. She came 1 day and than gone, I phoned her, she told me she need Extra salary, and my friend agreed, like 2 or 3 days later the women was gone and never back we called her, she said that she wanted to leave early, she want to work for ONLY 3 hours a day, of course she is kidding… We realized that people love being beggerS!
Posts: 968 | From: www | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by sonomod: I'd dare to advise khawagaa wives and love interests not to say "boo" about this issue to your in-laws.
The reaction I had to the street children epidemic was pretty much versed in this manner, "well she is an American woman. Wasn't a virgin when she married, not veiled, has a zambour, basically a stain; so she identifies with the deliquents."
My in-laws didn't understand that I sympathize with the street children, doesn't mean I am moral foul. In addition to how I treated the lower-classes as actual human beings. This also made me appear to be lacking virtue. My FIL understood, but my SIL and BIL were very upset.
If you have sympathy and feel for the impoverished or street kids plight, don't show it. Just show your support without the in-laws knowing.
my first job was in the hope village street organization. i dealt with alot of people, and everybody was very sympathetic to the street children. so maybe your SIL and BIL are just heartless. and by the way no one uses the word khawaga anymore
Posts: 4446 | From: Egyptian in Sydney | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by 7ayat: my first job was in the hope village street organization. i dealt with alot of people, and everybody was very sympathetic to the street children. so maybe your SIL and BIL are just heartless. and by the way no one uses the word khawaga anymore
Can you give an idea of what they do and how reliable they are. Is their primary focus on children or they have a variety of programs !
Posts: 637 | Registered: Apr 2005
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well they work with street boys, and lately pregnant street girls. they have day centers, temporary centers, and permanent centers. the first is for street children who just need a meal, a shower, and medical care. they also send social workers to areas popular with street children to try and convince them to visit the centers. they usually leave at the end of the day. if the child is responsive they try to coax him/her to to the temporary centers where they child lives while they try to reconcile him/her with their parents. if it succeeds the child goes home, if not he goes to the permanent resident until the university age. the pregnant girls are given permanent shelters until they give birth, and somtimes after. many of the girls have urfi marriages that they can't prove and consequently their children are not given a certificate, so the center has a lot of legal experts to help with this area. to be quiet honest, these people have done an awesome job, and have helped greatly in bringing the plight of street children to light. and the people who work their are very passionate about what they do, and really put their hearts in the job.
Posts: 4446 | From: Egyptian in Sydney | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by 7ayat: well they work with street boys, and lately pregnant street girls. they have day centers, temporary centers, and permanent centers. the first is for street children who just need a meal, a shower, and medical care. they also send social workers to areas popular with street children to try and convince them to visit the centers. they usually leave at the end of the day. if the child is responsive they try to coax him/her to to the temporary centers where they child lives while they try to reconcile him/her with their parents. if it succeeds the child goes home, if not he goes to the permanent resident until the university age. the pregnant girls are given permanent shelters until they give birth, and somtimes after. many of the girls have urfi marriages that they can't prove and consequently their children are not given a certificate, so the center has a lot of legal experts to help with this area. to be quiet honest, these people have done an awesome job, and have helped greatly in bringing the plight of street children to light. and the people who work their are very passionate about what they do, and really put their hearts in the job.
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Asooma, in the first scenario, a little boy should not work because that's considered a child exploatation. Would you send your own child at such a young age to work for someone else? Of course not, instead you would go to work for him, because you are parent. This child needs parent not employer. The homeless child also needs to be healed and helped from all mental, physical and emotional hurt people caused him. It's not easy but many people around the world are doing it.
You got to sacrifize a lot to change someone's life, but you get rewarded ten fold. A child needs to be also loved, hugged, kissed, and shown affection, understanding and compassion instead of treating him as "mature" adult. Imagine what goes in child's mind when someone tells him, sure I will help you but honey you got to work for it. You are going to be my employee, and the poor kid did not even go to school, not to mention experienced any love and affection for FREE.
However, I admire your cousin's intention to help. Maybe he did the best he knew, but definitely the conclusion is missunderstood on your behalf. No child wants to be homeless if they have a choice of comfort and happy family.
In the 2nd scenario, in order for poor single mom to work, she needs first to feel that her baby is safe while she is at work. Who is going to take care of the kid while she is at work? That's probably the reason why she wanted 3 hours only. Maybe later she would increase it to 4, and then 5 or more. And she also needed help prior to giving her a job. She is from the street. She needs someone to treat her equal, not looking at her down just because she is poor. God is the closest to those who suffer!
Homeless children are not kids who are lazy or don't want to work and change their life. They LEARNED from their experience that people will use them, abuse them and exploat them, so they will not trust you easily. Buy you can go down on their level and spend a day or two in cold street starving from hunger, and you will see how people treat you and what it is like to be in their shoes.
It is unfortunate that rich people would spent $50 on parfume ( just an example ), or buy 15th pair of new shoes in some new color, but they can not understand what means to be a homeless child, alone on the street, looking every single day and night, if someone will kick you again just because they can. What people expect from these children???
Just one day to woke up and say, hey I love you all because world was so kind to me, my family was so supportive and people did all they could to improve my living. No dear, they will say that while they were sitting cold on the street, 99% of people just passed by not even looking at them, and probably 15% of them tried to used them for their selfish needs. Since they are minors and so vulnerable they are target for abuse by anyone. Who is going to protect the child?
As I SAID again, thanks to you, your family and your cousin, but don't wealthy people feel guilty for all those shoes they never wore, while their own Egyptian children are suffering in their neighbourhoods. Surely, punishment is going to follow for those who were insensitive and blind to so obvious, nothing is secure 100%. Not even wealth.
Posts: 989 | Registered: Aug 2004
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It seems there are so many of us that care about these types of issues. Do you think we could come together to start something in Egypt to help???
Posts: 516 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by minry80: It seems there are so many of us that care about these types of issues. Do you think we could come together to start something in Egypt to help???
It takes a lot of time and effort which most of has don't have. Organizations like the one mentioned in this thread and ones like "mossada" are run by professionals and I believe the best way to help is to work with them. See what they need and do our best to provide them with that.
In most if not all cases they need money, but they also rely on people like us to get make others ware of the problems facing Egyptians. We can also help by putting pressure on the government agencies responsible and let them know we expect more from them.
I am still interested in finding a website that is able to process donations online and get them to those organization in timely manner. If someone who is living in Egypt is interested in something like that, I'm sure I can help set it up.
The website would accept donations by credit cards, paypal or any possible means and direct them to a number of organizations that would be on a list on the website. There should also be a way to process donation on regular basis for those who wish to do so, something like sponsoring a child an so on.
Once the website is operational and able to process donations, we can then all help to promote it on and off the net.
I think it was "sam online" who was setting up a website with a list of charitable organization on it, may be he would consider adding to the website something like what I mentioned.
Posts: 637 | Registered: Apr 2005
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We are doing a site for that still under construction ,it would take some time to be finished; hopefully not too long. It will gather all these charity facilities in Egypt. But i don't know yet about making the site accepting donations cause for that i guess there are some legal procedures like making an organization. However, i will see what can be done to make donations easier via that site. I will check with the programmers cause im big homar in such things Posts: 627 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Looking for someone else means you don't trust yourself. The members of this message board should organize themselves and do some charity alone. Then ask the OWNER of the egyptsearch to promote and publish the charity work of its members. If you work hard for something don't give the credit to someone else, plus we are good enough to do it on our own, I don't see the need to merge with any agency at all.
I already know some message boards that do the same thing and trust me even the newspapers are writing about them. Remember these are the ordinary people such as me and you. They got so many certificates from many hospitals saying something like: Thank you to members of "egypt-search" from hospital so and so.
I wish I am in situation to do more, all I can do is just keep motivating or send money so you guys can START solving the problem instead of analyzing it too much. There is nothing to analyze. Meet each other in person at designated date and place, and find out the candidate 1, 2 or 3, let's say you want to visit children from hospital, homeless child, single mother, poor family ( just an example ) then have a topic about it so we can all participate and just do it.
It's not that difficult trust me, nobody will kill you if you go to hospital and help children in any way YOU WANT. Buy the school supplies, buy the food for 6 months, get them shoes, clothes, books, go and visit them in the group etc.... All you need to worry about is that you do not give the money or things to someone else for whom you are not sure that it will be given to the needy directly. That's why you all do it together, and post the pictures later so everyone can see how you guys all did it.
How many members here, if everyone donate something, folks you can change many children's life and that's why you are here to help someone as a good and kind person instead of just complaining about it. Trust me members will help you when they see how you guys do it, especially after you show the pictures, everyone will want to participate.
If you guys don't know how to find a candidate to help, start with orphanage. I was told before they need TV and food, and look how many months passed by, if you kept $1 each month that TV could of been bought until today. Then you move on to some other needy children, whoever comes your way....you solve it in order it comes to you.
Posts: 989 | Registered: Aug 2004
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well it is better if each one choose a way that goes direct to those in need,for those who live in Egypt there are many places that one can go directely to donate.. and for those abroad ,they can choose those orphanages that have websites to donate to directly
Posts: 627 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Sam on line: well it is better if each one choose a way that goes direct to those in need,for those who live in Egypt there are many places that one can go directely to donate.. and for those abroad ,they can choose those orphanages that have websites to donate to directly
Of course some of the people who live abroad do donate to direct charities ..but that was an idea to do something as a group....
Posts: 2691 | Registered: Oct 2005
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I think membership needs to be free, so that people can participate only if they want and once they see what's the project about. Posts: 989 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by ~Sharon Stone~: I think membership needs to be free, so that people can participate only if they want and once they see what's the project about.
Great Comparmise .... as long as the members of this board do something good and charitable as a group...
Posts: 2691 | Registered: Oct 2005
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Actually there are no many to count and hard to find them on line even if they are there.Also they are not in English. And there are hundred others who cant find donators and are in complete oblivion.
Posts: 627 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Actually there are no many to count and hard to find them on line even if they are there.Also they are not in English. And there are hundred others who cant find donators and are in complete oblivion.
That brings us back to my original suggestions. Let's try to work with those organizations rather than do our own thing. Let's get them online, in English and make them accessible to anyone who want to help and doesn't necessarily live in Egypt.
Posts: 637 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by 7ayat: my first job was in the hope village street organization. i dealt with alot of people, and everybody was very sympathetic to the street children. so maybe your SIL and BIL are just heartless. and by the way no one uses the word khawaga anymore
Along with the security and tourism police, the street vendors, the fat cats in Gucci suits.
Yeah, they all had some very negative feedback for these street children. My in-laws are not the only ones to hold this view. Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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Actually there are no many to count and hard to find them on line even if they are there.Also they are not in English. And there are hundred others who cant find donators and are in complete oblivion.
That brings us back to my original suggestions. Let's try to work with those organizations rather than do our own thing. Let's get them online, in English and make them accessible to anyone who want to help and doesn't necessarily live in Egypt.
What is needed is, actual COOPERATION from the government.
Most of what makes these ventures fail is red tape and bad sponsorship!
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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I think people don't help because other people's pain don't hurt them. It's not about them, so they don't care.
When someone will not help you, please remember, it's because your pain don't hurt others. No need to wonder why. Now you know.
I learned this long time ago, and read it last night again on one blog of extraordinary person who wrote about his life.
Posts: 989 | Registered: Aug 2004
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The Islamic regime in Iran regards hungry street children and addicts as nothing more than garbage…
2005/12/12
According to reports from the regime-run news agency, FARS, Jalil Effati, the director of the welfare organization of the province of Yazd said: “Unfortunately certain people [in the regime] regard hungry and defenseless street children and addicts as nothing more than garbage that pollutes the pleasant scenery of the city streets. Poverty, oppression, corruption, addiction and social transgression are on rapid rise in our country and certain authorities hate divulging the real statistics; these authorities want to ‘do away with’ these innocent and desperate children and addicts in order to keep the cities pretty.”
posted
The more theocratic a regime is, the more corrupt immoral and cruel it is. That is what you get when you have a few men claming to have God given authority to rule. In democracies criminals are brought to justice. But how you can bring to justice a man who claims if you oppose him you have opposed God and must be killed for that offence? That's something for Muslims to think.
Muslims decry democracy and say it is corruption and exploitation of man over man when in fact that is the descriptions of theocracy and mullahcracy. What are the credentials of these men who claim to be the "guardians" and the "signs" of God on earth? Who vested them with that authority? Take the example of Iran. The Mullahs in Iran find these street kids worthless. They may be worthless for them, in fact millions of Iranians are worthless for these people and that is why they throw them in jail to rot, torture them, flog them, gouge their eyes, mutilate their limbs, stone them or hang them if they disagree with you and never bother to consult them whether they want you to rule over them. They are all worthless. Iran is building hundreds of nuclear warheads and this is music to the ears of many Muslims. Rafsanjani also said that in a nuclear confrontation Israel will be completely destroyed while Muslims, because they are a lot, will survive. And he thinks that even though millions of Muslims perish this is still a victory for Islam because Israel will be leveled. These Mullahs are not the legitimate rulers of a democratic country. They are murders and thugs who have taken the people as hostage and treat all those who disagree with them as “pests”. Theocracies have no humanity. Iran is a theocracy, yet prostitution is rampant and thanks to poverty, girls are even sold to Arab countries as sex slaves. Drug addiction is epidemic because the youths have lost their hope. People even sell their kidneys to buy food for their children.
Many Muslims support theocracy, yet none of them can show even one case where a theocracy has produced an ethical society. Many Islamists claim that only theocracy talks about moral and ethical values. Of course if you argue that the theocratic Mullahs are heavily involved in huge briberies, that have stolen billions of dollars while the Iranian population is in abject poverty, that many of them are guilty of pederasty, trafficking of young women and their sale as sex-slaves to Arab Sheikhs and all sorts of immoralities, indecencies and corruptions, you will be called an enemy of God and will be executed. So the main difference between democracy and theocracy is that in democracies there is check and balance, corruptions surface, cause scandal and are corrected and the offenders can be recalled, prosecuted or impeached depending on the gravity of their offence. But in theocracies the offences are often criminal in nature and they remain hidden while the whistleblowers are severely punished as agitators, disturbers of social peace and the enemies of God. The absence of check and balance, allows corruption in theocracies to be boundless.
Posts: 524 | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
Hahahaha. The biggest money scam ever was Chain Letters. Now its charities - on Line. Mrs. Doubtfire gets quite hysterical at these suggestions of donating money to the poor and homeless children of Egypt, do people seriously think that children need your cash - even if they ever got it (extremely doubtful) Homeless children need love. That is not a virtual thing but a reality. One has to be on the ground, and as one poster has already put it, we dont have the time.
Posts: 304 | From: egypt | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Mrs. Doubtfire: Hahahaha. The biggest money scam ever was Chain Letters. Now its charities - on Line. Mrs. Doubtfire gets quite hysterical at these suggestions of donating money to the poor and homeless children of Egypt, do people seriously think that children need your cash - even if they ever got it (extremely doubtful) Homeless children need love. That is not a virtual thing but a reality. One has to be on the ground, and as one poster has already put it, we dont have the time.
O dear ...to love some one is to care for them and show it and if donating money will help their parents to keep a roof on these kids heads ..it is good enough and that would be one of the ways to show that you love them and it is a reality cuz you gave something even though they do not know you...and it is not about time .it is about LOVE and caring for the less fortunate... if you do not have the source to donate or the good word to motivate I think you should not bother or lavitate ....Peace
Posts: 2691 | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by ~Sharon Stone~: I think people don't help because other people's pain don't hurt them. It's not about them, so they don't care.
When someone will not help you, please remember, it's because your pain don't hurt others. No need to wonder why. Now you know.
I learned this long time ago, and read it last night again on one blog of extraordinary person who wrote about his life.
When we learn that we are one ... it will be OK to be self centered ... but for now let's focus on the part not on the whole ...which makes our selfishness even incomplete and defeats the purpose ...
Posts: 2691 | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Fran: The more theocratic a regime is, the more corrupt immoral and cruel it is. That is what
What are you doing here ..can not miss a chance for displaying hatred through copy and paste... I wonder if you are even a real person ....Have you ever tried to help someone? when ? and why?
Posts: 2691 | Registered: Oct 2005
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