Egypt and Youth

(1) Briefing: Health and Education in Egypt-save the children

Since its inception in 1982, the Egypt Field Office (EFO) has been working to create lasting positive changes in the lives of children in need. It implements programs aimed at improving health services and behaviors, and at increasing access to education and economic opportunities. While program areas (health, education, and micro-finance) have remained largely unchanged since our inception, the thrust of interventions and the approach to programming continue to evolve. The most significant shift since the beginning of 2000 is in the operational framework, which has changed from a sectoral approach to a life-cycle approach.

For more information about programs of the above network ( click here:)

(2) Briefing: Involvement of youth in development- WORLD BANK

Today’s youth will one day lead societies in various countries, already young people are very much today already prove to be powerful agents of change. “Youth have a voice, posses their own resources, and can bring their own perspectives and experiences to development process” From the “youth – strategic direction for the world bank” draft prepared by Gloria La Cava and Paula Lytle, ECSSD., youth organizations could be valuable partners when it comes to scaling up activities. Apart from the importance of youth involvement for the sake of future generations, youth organizations have some comparative advantages in developing programs, and implementing them.

The “Youth development and peace” conference held in Paris from September 15-16 2003 was an initial step for further collaboration between youth organizations and the bank. From the discussions in the MENA region it became apparent that there is a need for youth organizations to connect to one and other and increase impact, cross fertilize ideas.

This program is designed as an initial follow up of the Paris meeting and brings together

different youth organizations working in the MENA region to discussions on the development challenges in their region focusing on ways for them to cooperate with each other to increase their impact, cross fertilize ideas and look at ways in which the world bank could assist in enhancing their capacity as agents of change in their communities as well as exploring ways in which the bank could partner with organizations.

For more information source: Click Here

(3) Briefing: youth education

Egypt: By youth and for youth – assistance is being provided through a new approach to understand the needs and behaviors of young people. A youth empowerment component deals with self-awareness issues, life and career planning, a focus on reproductive behavior, puberty, parenthood, sexually transmitted diseases, and family planning. The young men and women have developed an educational manual. Local partners encourage participation for decision-making across the community. Youth leaders have been trained, almost 60 per cent are women, and men and women were trained as peer educators in universities. This national effort was assisted jointly with the Federation of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, the Youth Association for Population Development, CEDPA, and UNFPA.

source:http://www.unfpa.org/sustainable/popups/action10.htm

(4) Briefing: Youth employment and other concerns

Alexandria, Egypt-- The Mission of YES was to stimulate and inspire the development of programs and policies worldwide in order to ensure that youth have access to the education and training programs, skills-development opportunities, resources, and credit that they need to build productive and sustainable livelihoods. The goal is, through the Decade Campaign of Action, for an additional 500 million young adults, especially youth facing poverty, to have productive and sustainable livelihoods by the year 2012.

FAO's involvement with YES and the Decade Campaign of Action for Youth Employment is to ensure that the special needs, conditions and aspirations of rural young people are taken into consideration when strategies are considered and action plans development; to share relevant knowledge and experiences related to employment and rural youth; and to explore possibilities of collaboration for concrete action.

source:http://www.fao.org/ruralyouth/news.html

(5) Briefing: Life-Story about street kids

Street Kids in Alexandria, Egypt

Back to Alexandria: this is not the first time I have seen street kids. About a decade of more ago, I saw a bunch of really young ones (10 or less) sleeping at tram stations. They were smoking cigarette butts they collect of the streets, discarded by others. When I talked to one of them saying that he should not be smoking, he pointed to my daughter, who was just a few years old, and said : "She also smokes cigarettes!"

Then there was yesterday's incident. I was at Ibrahimiya station waiting for the tram to arrive. A few teens and kids came over, eating mangos, of all things. One of them was visibly older than the others, with scars on his nose and close to it. He was at least 16 or so, and had a bag with him. There was one girl was younger, perhaps 13, wearing jeans and having short hair. There was another boy about the same age, wearing a jacket. And there was a young looking kid of 11 or 12 with light brown eyes, a baseball style cap and a can in his hand. They had the typical street look of not having touched water for weeks or perhaps months. They were foul mouthed, hurling really low insults at each other. They were throwing mango peel and stone at each other, I had to move off to the side so I don't get hit by some of that.

An elderly man waiting for the tram told me ??? ???? ????? "These are the Kolla kids". The man told me that they "have their conference" here at 3 a.m. in the morning "boys and girls together" He also said that "no one can do anything about them, not even the government". Kolla is some sort of glue used for making shoes, and has a strong smelling petroleum derived solvent component in it. The kids have these tin cans, and sniffing on the glue.

The four go in the same tram car I go in, but on the other end I was in. They were talking loudly most of the time. As I was leaving the tram, one of the boys came down to search for food in a garbage container at the side of the street, before going back to the same tram.

Source please visit the site:http://baheyeldin.com/alexandria/an-encounter-with-street-kids-in-alexandria-egypt.html

(6) Briefing: Healthy development-

Egypt - Preventing and Treating Anemia in School Children

Adolescence is an opportune time for interventions to address anemia. Not only is there great need (growth, preparation for pregnancy) but both boys and girls can still be reached easily if school attendance or participation in recreational activities is high. Also, they are open to new information and new practices since they are often striving for physical or academic excellence.

The Problem

22% of the Egyptian population (13 million), is currently in their adolescent years. The government is concerned about the health of this large number of citizens and has made great efforts to develop an overarching philosophy for a comprehensive and sustainable health policy for youth in Egypt. Egypt’s National Policy for Youth encourages “healthy development”, meaning that overall health is integrated with education, psychological development, skills training, work, and legal protection for youth. The five health areas emphasized in the youth policy are basic nutrition, preparation for puberty and marriage, negative and risky behaviors, prevention and treatment of health problems, and social and psychological development. This national policy is implemented through the public sector Health Insurance Organization (HIO) which expanded its program to cover all school children and now provides preventive primary and curative health services to the students under the Student Health Insurance Program (SHIP).

For more information view source:

http://www.manoffgroup.com/Text_Files/egyptanemia.htm