Addressing child labor in Old Cairo
Amira Abass, in front of her youth group's environmental mural in Kom Ghorab, Cairo.
Photo: Tammi Mott/CWS
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Child labor is one of the greatest threats to children in Egypt today. In the Old Cairo neighborhoods, the main causes of child labor are poverty and poor educational services.
With CWS support, the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services has conducted a two-year project focusing on 1,800 children under age 18. The program has empowered a cluster of four community-based organizations (CBOs) to improve the conditions of working children, with special focus on those in hazardous occupations. Through their efforts:
- 200 working children between ages 7 and 12 have left the labor force and returned to school;
- 558 children too old for elementary school have participated in literacy education, and 88% of them (492) have passed competency exams;
- 614 working children have gained vocational training, allowing 460 of them to transition into non-hazardous jobs;
- 800 working children have secured government-issued insurance cards;
- 68 adult family members have gained better work opportunities via small-business loans, allowing 272 children to be diverted from joining the workforce.