Home  »  Where We Work  »  Egypt  »  Hope for Helwan

Egypt is generally not the first country that comes to mind when thinking of poverty-stricken regions. Yet, the proportion of Egyptians living in absolute poverty has risen, despite relatively rapid economic growth.

More than 1.2 million Egyptians are living below the poverty line and around 44% of the population survives on less than $2 a day. In the small city of Helwan, a southern suburb of Cairo, the air remains entirely polluted due to the presence of numerous factories. In this same city, hope remains.

Helwan is comprised of underprivileged families merely seeking the ability to feed their children. They live each day in constant worry over whether or not they will have enough food for the next day. In addition, there are countless children with disabilities caused by years of constantly breathing polluted air.

These families are unable to access or afford any services to support their children's disability. To help these families, Islamic Relief has established a multidisciplinary center for early intervention and rehabilitation solely for this underserved population.

Early Intervention

The Early Intervention Resource Center (EIRC) in Helwan helps provide direct, comprehensive early intervention and rehabilitation services for children with special needs and their families. It also assists mothers of young disabled children to develop their children's abilities and to support other families with similar problems. These mothers would be unable to seek this support elsewhere.

The resource center provides guidance and training to pediatricians, health professionals, community health workers, child rehabilitation specialists and service providers, and nursery and basic education teachers who work with disabled and non-disabled children.

Undoubtedly, the real wonder of this facility remains the individuals who make this possible; the physical therapist committed to helping a child progress, from lacking any motor movements, all the way to standing, or even walking on his own. This same physical therapist works in a small room, with one simple staircase, and a few additional gadgets in order to make this remarkable impact on these once hopeless children.

Or the speech therapist, who is qualified to work in any higher-paying company he pleases, yet devotes his life to one day giving these disabled children the precious gift of communication. Or the psychotherapist, who continuously perseveres through the child's disobliging resistance in hopes of flourishing the child's underdeveloped skills.

In this same city, the families with roofs on their houses are considered the fortunate ones, even though these roofs may consist of nothing but bare lumber. One family of six had their house entirely damaged and now subsists simply on that same plot of land where their humble residence once stood. They have no income and their only means of survival is through the food their neighbors may spare or that people may provide for charity.

It is these families that Islamic Relief serves through the seasonal programs, comprised of dry food distributions during Ramadan and meat distributions during Eid-al-Adha. One family mentioned that if it were not for the Udhiyah/Qurbani food program that Islamic Relief offers, they would not know the taste of meat all year round.

Islamic Relief has been working in Egypt since 2001. There are over 1.5 million mentally disabled people in Egypt, and although the government has placed a high priority on disability, current facilities only cover about 10% of the total number of disabled. Islamic Relief will continue to assist and encourage self-sustainability through not only helping the disabled child, but supporting their family as well. Although Egypt's poverty rates are continuing to increase, it is in this small city of Helwan where hope remains.