CAIRO: A social program designed to rehabilitate street children recently launched specialized psychiatric clinics, identifying psychological problems as one of the main challenges in the rehabilitation process. Atfal Ad El-Hayah, roughly translated as “Children ready to take on life” is a social program designed for street children under the NGO Resala. “Even though we are trained on how to deal with the children, sometimes a child has a deep psychological problem and needs to be taken to a specialist,” said Rodayna Tulan, a volunteer in the program at an event organized by the Egyptian Civil Society Project at the American University in Cairo. The program was initiated three years ago by only five volunteers. Mostafa Hassan, the founder, approached Hope Village, an association also tackling the issue of street children, orphans and other underprivileged members of society, to teach them how to deal with street children. Today, the program operates through four centers with 250 volunteers, psychiatrists and psychologists in Helwan, Maadi, Heliopolis and Nasr City. Another aim for launching the clinics is to attract more psychiatrists and psychologists to join forces with the program, giving it a more professional appeal, according to Dina Basiouny, manager of the Egyptian Civil Society Project at the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research at AUC. Furthermore, the clinics will also be providing professional training for the volunteers, teaching them how to approach the children and deal with them. “The rehabilitation process of the children we find without shelter on the street is executed over four stages,” explained Hassan. “First, we go to places where they [street children] assemble and tell them about a ‘club' where we provide entertainment,” Hassan said, “We can't say the word center because they will immediately associate it with police stations and that will drive them away, and one of the main principles is letting them come to us willingly,” he continued. The case of the child is then studied thoroughly, after which the volunteers work on the problems the child is facing and send him or her back to their family. “Economic and financial problems are the easiest to solve,” Hassan pointed out. If the child's problem with his or her family can't be sorted out, he or she is taken to a temporary residency addressing that specific problem for six months to one year, after which his case is reevaluated and either the child is taken back to his or her family or moves on to stage four. The final stage involves a permanent residence where children stay until they are 18 years old. So far, the majority of the children in the program are between ages 5–14. During that time they are taken back to school or join literacy classes. “They learn to be productive people in a safe environment,” Hassan noted. Another challenge the volunteers face is helping the children overcome their fear. “They are afraid due to their lack of faith in society and there is this barrier which is eventually overcome with the activities we organize,” said Mohamed Mefreih, one of the volunteers. According to Bilal Ali, one of the children in the program, described his experience. “I love acting and participating in plays,” he said. Ali, who joined the program a year ago, memorized a number of verses of the Quran and recited them during the event. The program works on enhancing the children's talents. Mohamed Hussein, who has been living at the permanent residency for one year, loves writing poetry and hopes to become a lawyer. “Atfal Ad El-Hayah is an aid to street children and the young people working in the program are hardworking and determined youth,” said Basiouny. “Our aim is to develop the role of civil society and NGOs in Egypt and this can't come about randomly,” explained Basiouny. “We bring together civil society activists in order to communicate, join forces and collaborate because we have more than 26,000 NGOs in Egypt but there is no coordination between them so we want cooperation in the efforts to bring about development,” she added. On its website, mogtamana.org, the Egyptian Civil Society Project comprehensively covers the activities and projects carried out by the Egyptian civil society. Furthermore, they also have a radio channel broadcasting “the voice of the Egyptian civil society.”
