CAIRO: A delegation of executive board members from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) headquarters in Rome spent a week in Egypt to evaluate the aid agency’s projects in some of the country’s poorest regions.
The delegation, consisting of board members from a wide range of donor countries, including the US, Canada, China, and Slovenia, visited Bedouin communities in South Sinai, as well as schools and villages in Sohag and Aswan sponsored by the UN food aid agency.
Since its establishment in 1963, WFP has provided $637 million of assistance to Egypt in an effort to improve its population’s food security and quality of life, with special emphasis placed on women and children.
According to WFP figures, around 2.4 million people of Egypt’s population of 70 million are undernourished. Nineteen percent of Egyptians reportedly live under the poverty line.
At the first stop in South Sinai, the delegation visited a school and a village built by the WFP and the Egyptian government to improve the living of the local people.
“I am so happy that both my children and I receive education. The WFP really makes a difference in our community. Our lives have changed drastically to the better since the village and school were built, a middle-aged woman from the Bedouin community told The Daily Star Egypt.
Around the corner from the new school, the WFP and the Egyptian government recently built an ecollage – ecologically sound – village together with the local population.
“In this particular project, we have helped resettle landless Bedouin families and trained them to develop the agricultural base of their settlement areas, which is one of our main focuses in Egypt, Bishow Panjuli, WFP Country Director, told The Daily Star Egypt.
Upon arrival to the village, Gamil, the man in charge of the village community, greets us. “Welcome to our village, he says in flawless English while showing the delegation around the neat cottage houses, kitchen, and bathrooms.
Gamil is one of the WFP’s numerous ‘beneficiaries’ in the village. Each year, a number of men and women from poor rural areas in Egypt receive grants in the form of money, education and training from the aid agency to help improve the lives of their families and fellow villagers.
“It is important to remember that this village community simply consisted of small shacks where people were living in severe unsanitary conditions. Before the implementation of the WFP beneficiary program, there was no water, food, or school up here, Panjuli stresses.
A short drive away from the ecollage, the delegation visited an underdeveloped Bedouin community, which is a future joint project the WFP and the ministry are soon to take on.
As we pull up at the site, we are welcomed by the men and young boys of the village outside the small steel huts and improvised tent arrangements where the villagers seek refuge from the gazing sun .
“This is what the ecollage village looked like before WFP launched its project there. We wanted to take the delegation here so that they can see the strong contrast and realize what an impact our projects can have, say Panjuli.
Omar, 16, is standing with his friends looking skeptically at the crowd of newcomers.
“What do I do all day? I play with my friends, of course. There is nothing else to do. We have no school or anything here, he sighs.
The women are gathered separately on the floor in one of the shacks.
“We can’t continue to live this way. There is no school, no running water, and no doctor in our community. Every day, I spend six hours collecting water from the nearest reservoir, Aida told The Daily Star Egypt when asked about her current living situation.
“Of course we want to educate ourselves and do something with our lives. Right now my only choice is to marry one of my two cousins and stay here. I have no future unless we receive help from outside, she continues in a low voice.
Following the visit to Sinai’s Bedouin communities, the delegation traveled to the rural areas of Sohag to inspect WFP-sponsored schools.
The schools in Sohag were built by the Unicef and the Egyptian government and rely on an ‘active learning’ program, in which students work closely together in groups in a variety of subjects such as English, Arabic, mathematics, and sports.
“The staff in these schools is more facilitators than actual teachers. We want the children to engage in independent and active learning from an early stage, Ines Hegazy, Unicef education officer, tells the delegation in her presentation.
During the visit, the school students, from six to 14 years old, perform presentations on nutrition and exercise and sing English songs to demonstrate their skills.
“How are you? What is your name? Fatima, 12, asks The Daily Star Egypt.
The WFP also sponsors a special school for street children, or ‘children at risk’, in the poorest area Sohag.
The children work in local shops and often live on the street, attend classes for two or three hours a day and have lunch at the school.
“We sponsor this school so that ‘children at risk’ in the area are able to receive education. Currently the students are studying Arabic, English, math and sports, says Rania El-Razzaz, Program Officer at WFP in Cairo.
The students at the schools in Sohag are part of the 280,000 primary school children and 3,000 schoolgirls in Egypt to receive daily snacks and take home rations from the WFP.
“We are very delighted to be here and see the success of these schools, Gaddi Vasquez, US Ambassador in Rome, told the Governor of Sohag at the closing meeting.
The delegation spent the last days in Aswan where the WFP manages two large village projects in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and the local governorate.
As we approach the well-maintained houses, school, and medical clinic of El Khadija village, it is hard to imagine that the community consisted of small shacks without water or any amenities just one year ago.
The village that houses 150 families was established by the Ministry of Agriculture and WFP in an effort to resettle the area’s landless people and provide employment opportunities for them.
“One year ago, my family and I had nothing. As a divorced young mother with four kids, we had no future. Now all my children attend school and I am working at the local Council in Women’s Affairs. I can’t express how happy I am, Zeinab, one of the village inhabitants, told The Daily Star Egypt.
The village school consists of several clean and spacious classrooms where the students are educated by well-trained teachers from Egypt’s largest cities from kindergarten to high school.
“The high unemployment rate has actually proven to be a positive side effect to our WFP projects in Aswan. We have many well-educated teachers and social workers from Cairo and Alexandria who have come to work here because they had a hard time finding jobs in their hometowns, said Mr. Khalil of WFP Cairo.
At the medical clinic, the staff provided the delegation with an overview of the work in the village.
“Most of the cases we treat here are scorpion bites. They are more common than regular stomach flu, says one of the doctors.
Before heading back to Cairo, the delegation also visited a number of reservoirs and agricultural settlements in the area that have been built with help from the WFP.
Panjuli concludes: “By showing the delegation these projects, we wanted to demonstrate that the WFP has moved far beyond its role as being simply a food supporter. Our focus is now on long term development instead of short-term fixes.
