Egypt What We Do
Child Protection
Save the Children works to protect boys and girls from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and violence. We also work to ensure that children who are not receiving appropriate, continuous and quality care from family members or caregivers are able to live in a protective environment. Working in collaboration with government partners, we are helping develop stronger national policies and standards to protect children at risk and to provide safe alternative care.
We are supporting local government and civil society partners to implement policies and provide quality services for children at risk. This includes case management services, which assess the particular needs of at risk children and ensure they are accessing the right services and support; counselling services and psychosocial support services which help vulnerable children and their families build social and emotional well-being and resilience.
Save the Children is also supporting communities, teachers and parents to provide better protection for all. We are supporting communities to play a role in referring children at risk to services, and building skills to address violence against children and other risks.
Our goal is to ensure that all children, especially the most vulnerable, are benefiting from accessible, effective, and sustainable child protection services.
Maternal and Child Health
Save the Children works to ensure that mothers and families have access to lifesaving health and nutrition services and practices. We improve the health status of mothers and children in the most deprived areas in Egypt. Our programs focus on three pillars: enhancing access to quality maternal and neonatal health care services; strengthening human and institutional capacities of local service providers; and promoting healthy maternal and child health and nutrition practices among mothers, women and community members.
We are working in partnership with the with Ministry of Health and Population to strengthen the Raedat Refiat (Community Health Worker) program which provides vital local level health services, supporting policy development and quality training to reach 14,000 Community Health Workers across Egypt. Our programs also ensure marginalized women have access to reproductive health services, through supporting a number of Primary Health Care centers and public hospitals, to ensure that primary and secondary health needs are being met. Our fundamental goal is to empower families in Egypt's most marginalized areas to help the families and their children to be healthy.
Early Childhood Care and Development
Save the Children works to prepare young boys and girls for successful future, by improving access to quality Early Childhood Care and Development services. Our programs help build the critical social, emotional, cognitive, physical, language and motor skills young that 4-6 year old children need to thrive and to do well in later stages of life. We work in partnership with government agencies, communities, and community organizations to expand ECCD services, build skills of teachers and facilitators and engage parents in this critical stage of education.
Basic Education
Save the Children works to improve the learning experience and success for boys and girls through building safe quality learning opportunities. We are supporting Egypt’s overall educational policy goals and work hand in hand with the Ministry of Education and community groups to contribute to better education for all. Our programs improve access to education, promote safe learning environments, strengthen the quality of education and build efficiency in organisational systems.
Through our programs, children’s reading and writing skills are improved. Teachers are trained on effective and modern teaching approaches, and we promote ongoing professional development of educators. Our capacity building programs also include school health and nutrition programs, as well as programs to improve parents’ engagement and the voice of children in schools. We build skills in positive discipline and child protection approaches and systems to reduce violence in schools, and build capacities to improve learning outcomes for girls and for boys, as well as children with disabilities.
Adolescent and Youth Development
Save the Children addresses the needs of youth so they can actively contribute to their own well-being, positive future opportunities and the community overall. Our programs build personal resilience and create learning opportunities to support adolescent girls and boys and youth to benefit from safe, equitable choices, and have an influential voice in decision making in own lives and more broadly in communities. This includes supporting youth to enhance their skills and benefit from different safe livelihood pathways, resulting in improved economic status for them and their families. Programs facilitate social participation and community engagement, to encourage young girls and boys to collaborate as agents of change in their communities.
Refugees and Migrants
Egypt has a long history of hosting refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa. The Syria crisis and other regional conflicts have seen a large increase in the number of refugees and migrants in Egypt. Save the Children has been responding to this crisis since 2013, working with government agencies, UNHCR and other international organizations and local partners to address the needs of vulnerable refugee and Egyptian children and their families. We are providing tailored programs, offering child protection, education, health and livelihoods support.
Our protection programs focus on at risk children, providing individual case management support for children, assessing needs, developing a care plan and facilitating access to services to support specific needs. We are providing counselling for children and their families, and psychosocial support activities to promote the well-being and build the resilience of children.
Working in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Save the Children supports refugees and marginalized Egyptians to access quality education through public and community schools. Our programs support improvements to basic school infrastructure and materials to ensure children learn in a safe child-friendly space and build capacities of educators to manage and deliver quality education programs. Our health programs are improving access to quality health services, and we respond to individual needs through health screening and support services.
Save the Children supports refugees and host communities to improve their incomes, targeting particularly marginalised youth and women in Greater Cairo. Programs ensure that target Egyptians, refugees, and migrant youth and women are better equipped, informed and connected with the local labour markets, engaged with employers and getting safe wage employment opportunities; or alternatively are able to set up their own income generating activities in the form of micro-businesses.
