Local focus pays off for NGO helping slum women to earn cash

A micro project to help improve the income of women slum dwellers in Cairo has achieved excellent results and is set to be replicated elsewhere in this sprawling city of 12 to 15 million people. When the Arab Alliance for Women (AAW), a local NGO, moved into the small Houtaya slum in Giza, Cairo’s twin city on the west bank of the river Nile, in October 2004, it targeted 150 families living in just four crowded streets. Its aim was to find women who came from households with a monthly income of less than 400 Egyptian pounds (US $70) per month and equip them with the skills necessary to earn a decent living. Those selected for training in skills such as sewing and hairdressing were all over 18 and had completed primary school, so they knew how to read and write. But many of them were mothers of large families with little or no job-hunting experience. Some did not even have a national identity card to show to potential employers. A year later, 50 women assisted by the project have found jobs and a further 24 have been trained as seamstresses who can work from home if necessary. “We found jobs for them in factories, as hairdressers and in the public sector,” said project director Hala Farouk Mohammed, a member of the Houtaya Local Development Association, which acted as AAW’s implementing partner in the project. “The women working in factories are now earning around 200 pounds ($35) per month,” she added. “This has helped them a lot.” Better food and school books The wage might not seem wonderful, but finding any jobs at all for poor Egyptian women with only a rudimentary education is a major achievement. Mohamed said the extra cash had helped the women of Houtaya to put more varied food for the family dinner table and buy schoolbooks for their children. “Without higher education or working skills, and lacking even the basic knowledge of how to obtain their rights, many of them find it very difficult to make ends meet,” said AAW Executive Director Leyla Abaza. One key to the success of the project, was that it provided the women with assistance in finding jobs as well as skills training. The AAW and the Houtaya Local Development Association made sure they were equipped with the right documentation and often bargained with employers on their behalf. “Now we know where to go and how to bargain with them to employ one of our women,” said Mohamed, the project coordinator. The government officially estimates unemployment in Egypt at 9.9 percent, but most economists reckon it is double that . And in a slum like Houtaya, the number of jobless is well above the national average. “With unemployment being very high, it’s much more difficult for women to find jobs than men,” Mohammed said. Amna Aly Ibrahim, who has to raise three children on her husband’s modest salary as a taxi driver, was one beneficiary of the Houtaya project. “Learning how to sew was a great opportunity for me,” she said. “This way I can make my own products and sell them.” “I can also save money by making clothes for my children,” she added, proudly pointing to a vest she had made for her youngest daughter. Ibrahim participated in one of three training workshops organised by Houtaya Local Development Association, each of which taught eight women how to sew. However, many of the participants found it difficult to get jobs afterwards, so the AAW has equipped a shop with four sewing machines where some of them can make and sell their own products. Winning the confidence of local women Abaza said the Houtaya project had managed to win the confidence of local women by using a local organisation as a partner. “Such projects, even though they are small, are very successful because they are intensive and concentrate on small groups of women in deprived areas,” she added. “Because we concentrate on small groups of women we are able to solve most of the problems facing them,” she explained. “For example….we discovered that some women didn’t have birth certificates, so we helped them to obtain their certificates in order for them to be issued with national identification cards so that they could find work, Abaza said. One indication of the success of the Houtaya project is that women from other districts of Cairo have already come to enquire about future programmes. Abaza said the feedback had been so positive that Houtaya Local Development Association was now hoping to launch similar capacity-building initiatives of its own. "By working on the project, people from the local association have been trained to continue what we started," she explained. The Houtaya project was financed by charity Inner Wheel, a women’s affiliate of the Rotary Club movement. Abaza said AAW was also hoping to launch similar initiatives in future elsewhere in Egypt.