TENS of disabled men and women continued to stage a sit-in outside the Egyptian Parliament in central Cairo on Tuesday for the fourth day in a row to demand jobs and housing and make their grievances about what they call “total official negligence” heard to legislators. They sat on their wheelchairs and chanted slogans against the Government, while some of them detailed the suffering they sustained everyday to earn a living and meet their basic human needs. “I've searched for a job for years, but this seems to be a far-fetched dream,” said Ashraf Mahmoud, one of the handicapped who came to protest outside the Parliament. “The Government has shirked its responsibility for us a long time ago,” he told The Gazette in an interview. Most of the people who came to the Parliament to join in this sit-in say they are displaced and unable to earn a living, while State institutions and the private sector do not honour a pledge to specify 5 per cent of the vacancies in them for disabled Egyptians. Their conditions might overshadow the state of this country's disabled population, estimated by some institutions to be 8 million. When Mahmoud went recently to a governmental office to present an application for free housing, he was yelled at and pushed away. A security man had even told him that he needed to be connected to get free housing. “I got fed up of this condition,” he said. “I feel as if I'm an outcast,” he added. Behind him, other disabled men and women raced against each other to tell their own stories. Some of them go to the Health Ministry everyday to apply for free artificial limbs. Others said they just wanted to earn a decent living and live in safe housing. Two legislators insisted to present the case of the nation's disabled population in Parliament on Monday. They lashed out at the Government for not giving due care to the handicapped and accused officials at the Ministry of Manpower of disregarding their suffering. Outside the Parliament, the weather was equally heated. The protestors swore to stay intact until the Government took special measures to end their suffering. One of them is Ahmed Fathi, an Islamic jurisprudence student at Al-Azhar University, Egypt's Muslim seminary. At 20, Fathi, who speaks haltingly and suffers problems with his left hand and legs, is a top student. But the lack of enough money for his education can turn him into a begger one day, according to his mother. “I used to sell sweets on the street in front of my house,” Fathi said. “But people always came in to give me charity. I don't want charity. I want a job to feed myself and my family,” he added.
