Girl power
Small funds are turning lives around in Aswan. Niveen Wahish reports
Sanaa Abdel-Aal, 30, has been in and out of the job market since graduating from technical school. Dusting off an often neglected video camera her brother brought from a Gulf country several years ago, she now professionally films weddings of friends and neighbours, particularly women's gatherings. Abdel- Aal's new job stems from her participation in a community development programme that has trained 80 women from Aswan in video production, sewing, baking, plastic manufacturing, hairdressing and arabesque woodwork.
The project is instituted by the Egyptian Association for Community Initiative and Development (EACID). Established in 1998, the association's objective is to assist community development and run various activities and projects designed to raise the social and economic status of low-income families, particularly low-income single women and their families. EACID received some LE42,000 from the US Ambassador's Self-Help Programme (SHP), a special fund for small-scale local initiative projects, in order to establish vocational training for girls and women like Abdel-Aal who are interested in starting their own businesses.
SHP assists small, grassroots projects in some of Egypt's poorest communities. The Aswan scheme is one of 37 similar schemes in 14 governorates that have received similar funding. $100,000 are earmarked for SHP annually.
The training is also open to those who want to develop their skills but don't intend to start a business. Mervat Mohamed learned how to bake pastries through a training programme because she is about to get married and wanted to be a good housewife.
"It is understandable that some of the women who receive the training will not be starting their own businesses, but at least they will feel confident about themselves," a US embassy official said. "The idea behind the project is to empower women and boost their self- confidence."
According to Mamdouh Fouad Ali, executive director of EACID, anyone can apply to receive the training. Ali said that at the project's inception there were few applicants, but gradually word of the available opportunities has been spreading.
Another self-help project in Aswan is carried out by the Community Development Association of El-Aqaab Al-Kobra (CDAAK). With LE42,000 contributed by SHP, and an additional LE10,000 contributed by CDAAK, the project has introduced a new industry to the village of El-Aqaab that utilises its only viable natural resource, the palm tree, to produce of furniture and handicrafts. Both men and women have trained to craft these goods from palm trees and their residues. Rabeea Hussein Mohamed, who works with the association, said that newly-trained artisans have been able to manufacture full rooms of furniture that sell for LE250. The villagers are also producing Nubian plates, an art that was already preserved by the village's elder women, and CDAAK is teaching them to carve arabesque woodwork with machines. Over the project's first six months 25 individuals have been trained to operate the arabesque machines.
