April 2004

From the Far Side

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners,

We pray that you have all had a wonderful Easter holiday and that you have rejoiced in the knowledge that the Lord has risen and gives us purpose and meaning in life.

We have been busy with the Joining Hands Against Hunger program. I didn’t want to write about our plans in Egypt until they were finalized and approved by the Presbyterian Hunger Program, but I’m free to do that now.

In Egypt, the “Together For Family Development” network focuses on crucial issues for child laborers. Child laborers are deprived of their human and childhood rights, which includes health and educational rights. Many are suffering from malnutrition, anemia, liver disease, and there are increasing instances of cancer. Also, more often than not, children are not taught a specialty skill or allowed to attend formal schooling of any kind.

We will provide the vaccinations necessary for the prevention of hepatitis A and B and tetanus and providing medications for the treatment of liver disease. We will also provide information about the various forms of work-related cancer occurring within child laborers, including where they can get treatment. We’ll also provide communities with information on malnutrition and anemia. Where children suffer from malnutrition and anemia, the network will give multi-vitamins and iron supplements.

This work will be carried out through “community meetings” led by medical specialists. Each organization in the JHAH network will work with the medical professional to identify sick children. A protocol has been devised to deal with each illness. To learn more about the specifics of this program, you can look to our Web site at www.pal-egypt-jhah.org.

To deal with issues of childhood rights and education, we’ll organize community meetings. Each organization will work with the education specialist who will lead these community meetings in order to identify children in need.

Each organization will have a scholarship fund to pay for schooling. The average cost per child for one year to attend school is $27.00, which covers tuition, books, shoes, uniform, and a school bag. The goal is to work with families that insist on having their children work. For instance, when a family has six children that are all working, the network organization will work with the family to allow one or two siblings to attend school. They will emphasize girls attending school.

Another program will bring young adults from one network organization to another for training available at a network organization site. After being trained, the young adults will return to their home community and train others in what they have learned. For example, two young adults from the village of Ga’afar could be sent to the Association for the Protection of the Environment in Moquattam to train in garbage recycling. They would then return to their village to begin a recycling program and train others. This creates jobs and raises educational, economic and environmental standards. There will also be an option for organizations to create an entertainment or sports program for the children in communities. The point is to try to bring kids from different areas together to share their experiences and, hopefully, to inspire each other. Perhaps a football tournament for children from some of Cairo’s communities?

It must be noted that each organization will have freedom within the scholarship fund to carry out what they think is most important, since not every community’s situation or needs are the same.

The end result of all of this work will be to document the results compiled into a single report to be presented to the government and international agencies involved in child/human rights in order to press for enforcement of current laws pertaining to child labor, to change laws pertaining to children’s health provisions, and to open centers that would provide the above programs.

I would also like to add that we have been told by many who work on program development for NGOs that this is one of the best programs that they have seen in Egypt in a long time.

I can’t tell you how happy we all are to have this program getting underway. We hope that the importance and practicality in this effort are self-evident. For anyone moved to contribute, contributions to this ministry may be sent to: Central Receiving Service, Section 300, Louisville, KY 40289. Write the title (Joining Hands Against Hunger - Egypt) and the ECO number on the subject line (#H000102) of the check and put it on your cover letter, too. Send a copy of the cover letter to the Presbyterian Hunger Program, International Desk, at 100 Witherspoon St. Louisville, KY 40202-1396. Or click the "give" button below to donate online.

Sincerely in Christ,

Chris, Hala, Nadiim & Adeeb

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, pp. 318, 321, 323