There is a big need for work among the street children in Egypt and Cairo

Egypt has for a long time denied the existence of a street children problem or downplayed the extent of the problem. Street children have been objects of contempt in Egyptian society and the police have arrested street children on a regular basis. When arrested, children have often been also mentally, physically and sexually abused.

Street children are invisible in Egyptian society also in the way that not many of them have a birth certificate or an identity card, the lack of both denying them access to public health care and education. There are a number of non-governmental organizations helping street children in Egypt, the oldest and best-known of them being Hope Village Society, the partner of Kulttuurikameleontit ry.

The revolution of 2011 brought street children and the street children problem to daylight in Egypt. The role of the police having changed, street children will no longer have to be afraid of the police in the same way as before and this is why they can now be seen more often in the centre of Cairo.

The work of Hope Village Society

The Cairo street children development co-operation project has a partner in Egypt: the independent Egyptian non-governmental organization Hope Village Society (www.egyhopevillage.com).

Hope Village Society (HVS) has 13 shelters all around Cairo. It provides street children with social and health services, education and an opportunity to have a stable and safe environment with a long-term or short-term housing.

HVS has a four-step approach to helping street children perfected through its long field experience on the streets of Cairo: mobile units or mobile clinics, day centres and short-term and long-term shelters. Through this multi-step model, street children are supported on the road from the street to homes of their own.

Kulttuurikameleontit ry development project focuses mainly on supporting the activities and development of the young street mothers’ shelter and day centres and the empowerment of the staff and the residents at the shelter.

The approach of Hope Village Society

Mobile units or mobile clinics

A mobile unit is a bus modified into a medical clinic driving around in the streets of Cairo. It is the first unit that encounters street children in their own environment.

HVS has a number of buses that circulate in the Cairo neighbourhoods on a regular basis. Some of the street children and young people are familiar with the car and the staff already. Mobile units try to reach as many street children as possible and make them aware of their opportunity to get a better future.

The staff of the mobile unit is trained to carry out minor health care treatments, as street children have a lot of scratches, bruises or infected wounds. Street children will also get a snack from the mobile unit - or a ride to a day centre, if needed.

The main objective of the mobile units is to get the street children to trust that the HVS personnel genuinely wants to help them. Street children are often fearful and traumatized and it is very difficult for them to believe that anyone would want to work for their interests.

Day Centres

HVS has two days centres, one for boys and one for girls, as is customary in Egypt. The day centres are located in poor areas where there the number of street children is biggest in proportion to the population.

The day centres are open daily from 7 to 17. Children living on the streets normally spend these hours sleeping. Nights in the streets are unsafe and especially in the winter also cold and this is why children feel safer to stay awake at night observing their surroundings.

In the day centres, children can have a rest, because the police do not have a permission to enter the day centres. There they can also have a meal, wash up and change clean clothes. The day centres also have a variety of workshop activities.

In the day centre for girls, one of the most important services is maternity counselling. There the street girls have an opportunity to get a gynaecological examination, and it is often only there that the girls hear they are pregnant.

Moreover, the day centres play an important role in conveying information about the shelters.

Shelters

Hope Village Society has a number of shelters all over Cairo. There are shelters for both temporary and permanent housing. The road to a shelter generally runs through a mobile unit and a day centre. Shelter housing is based on the child's own wish to get away from the streets; the integration of a street child into a full member of society is not possible without the child's own motivation.

When a child comes to the shelter, he or she first goes through a get-acquainted period, during which the staff finds out about the child's background and need for therapy and rehabilitation as well as makes a comprehensive health check. Adapting to the regularities and habits of everyday life at the shelter is very difficult and slow for a child who has been living on the streets. A potential drug dependency brings additional challenges to the adaptation and to the start for a new life.

After the get-acquainted period, the child begins both individual and group therapy. The individual therapy is aimed at helping the child to go through his or her life story and transform the factors that have crushed the child's self-esteem and zest for life into resources. The main purpose of the group therapy is to teach relationship skills as well as to create team spirit between the residents of the shelter. In addition, the group therapy is aimed at eliminating the stigma related to a person being a street child and raising self-esteem in order for the child to realize that he or she is not the only one who has had a hard life on the street.

Living at the shelter is optional. Every child can also choose to live with his or her family (if the family is known) or with a suitable relative while receiving help from HVS. Hope Village Society tries to bring home children and young people who still have a connection to their family. Work with the family continues after the child’s return.

At the shelter, the child trains to live under the rules usually for 6-12 months. Hope Village Society places the child or the young person at the permanent shelter only after the child is fully committed to rehabilitation and does no longer hanker back to the street. Children and young people can live at the permanent shelters until they become independent, get married or train for a profession and find a job.

At the shelter, the child is also taught to read and write, so that he or she could go to state school as soon as possible.

The young street mothers' shelter

HVS is the only street children organization that provides a shelter for young street mothers.

A typical resident of the shelter is a young girl who is pregnant or who has just given birth. The residents are 10-19 years old. The youngest mother at the HVS’s shelter was only nine years old. It is not easy to estimate the girls' ages and it is more often than not that they don’t know their own ages either. A tough life on the street leaves its mark and a 15-year-old girl may well look like a 25-year-old one.

The young street mothers' shelter differs from all the other shelters also in its open-door policy. Some of the young street mothers come to the shelter only when they get to know about the pregnancy or when the birth is approaching. The aim is that the mother stays with her child in the shelter, but many of the street mothers return to the street and leave their children at the shelter. Again, this is a better option for the baby than life on the street.