Gazette Staff CAIRO, August 7, 2017 - The Long Live Egypt (Tahya Misr) Fund announced on Tuesday that so far, it had funded more than 10,900 projects for female breadwinners at a total cost of LE173 million, as part of the"Mastoura" programme to empower female breadwinners economically. The Mastoura programme was launched by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in 2017, which he declared to be the year of the Egyptian woman. The President instructed the Long Live Egypt Fund, which he established in 2014 to carry out national projects,to allocate LE250 million to the Mastoura programme. The programme provides funds ranging between LE4,000 and LE20,000 to help poor women who are able to work, to establish small and micro projects. The funds are delivered to the beneficiaries, aged between 21 and 60, in the form of equipment and production materials. Tamer Abdel Fattah, the Fund's Financial and Administrative Director, said in a statement on Tuesday that the Mastoura programme was offering opportunities to female breadwinners, to empower them economically and to help them shoulder their daily burdens and ensure a decent life for their families. Abdel Fattah added that the programme was being implemented through a co-operation protocol with the Nasser Social Bank, which would undertake all the procedures needed to offer funding from the bank's 93 branches, spread throughout the governorates. He pointed out that the programme had provided funding for 71 women's projects in Halayeb, Shalatin and Abu Ramad, at a total cost of LE1.5 million.
