Hi, my name is Karim Gohar, and I am raising funds for the children and youths of the Badawi Shelters in Minya, Egypt. This is the most deprived and forsaken community I’ve seen working in social and economic development for over 30 years.

Badawi might never become a middle or even low-income/class community through the efforts of any NGO. Why? Because it is only one rung above prison bars: the designated pit for those who have nowhere else to go! But they have children. And that is mainly why we are there, even if the state has no prospects to structurally and socially change the equation!

What are the Badawi shelters? - a rough profile:

1- 95% of children and families live in abject poverty, from hand to mouth on a daily basis, earning their living from marginal, casual, demeaning labour;

2- 70% earn their living from collecting discarded cardboard from the city streets, more often in the dead of the night;

3- 30% of the children work in cardboard collection, accompanying a parent or only older children. Often a child will become engaged in cardboard collection from the age of 11;

4- 40% of the children are cared for by one adult, often a grandmother or aunt, while the parents are either serving prison time or in another governorate eking out a living;

5- Physical abuse of children is widespread. It is the standard, not the exception. Child sexual abuse is also more prevalent than anywhere else I’ve seen;

6- Violence in all its forms, physical, emotional, and verbal dominates daily life;

7- Knife crime resulting in serious injury or death is recurrent. Sometimes violent conflict between two individuals will flare up and spread to 10-15 people battling another group with sticks and knives;

8- 50% of children and youths have been held in police custody repeatedly on suspicion of theft, drug use or dealing, or causing physical injury to others;

9- At any given time, 30% of families have one member in prison;

10- 40% of adults and older children abuse drugs for short or long periods;

11- 40% of youths and adults engage in petty drug dealing at one point or another because of the poverty and lack of other work opportunities, and often implicate children in their delivery; and

12- Recurrent police raids take children and adults to jail; when released they return to Badawi.

Children there are still children, the majority of them unjustly condemned to a predetermined fate of growing up into a dark, criminal life. For 14 years, Bedayaat (established legally in 2008) has helped and built a solid relationship of trust and solidarity with the Badawi children, youth, and community at large. The raised funds will help Bedayaat to help the Badawi Shelters community from its base right in the midst of the Badawi Shelters.

Bedayaat will use the funds raised to:

1- Provide health services and adequate nutrition for the most vulnerable children, youth, and families;

2- Daily operation of our Child Center pedagogical, social, and educational activities to foster informal learning and positive behaviours in children and safeguard them from abuse;

3- Support needful children with psychological counselling; and

4- Raise the social and cognitive awareness of mothers so that they can play a positive role in improving the conditions of their children.