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Aid Relief
This program provides financial assistance for emergencies such as a leaking roof. Such assistance is provided for the very poor/very old/very sick or alternatively someone who wants to get married but needs some financial support to do so.
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Community Centre
We organise many community activities including art classes, sport activities and jewellery making. We also organise fun games and trips to places like Azhar Park.
Each Thursday we organise things onsite for the women in the community and once a month we take them on an outing.
We organise additional activities for the children to develop their skills. For example we have teamed up with a professional acting and theatre director who comes twice a week to teach the children drama, particularly stage work.
Mid- Year Vacation Trips and Activities
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Computer Class
The aim of the computer facilities is to aid the literacy classes by allowing for interactive learning to as opposed to just taking information from the blackboard. This will make learning more interesting and also to introduce basic computer skills to all.
The computer class also provides free beginner computer skills courses to those people whose work requires such skills or are searching for work which demands computer skills. Those who do not need computer skills are not currently offered this.
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Social and Psychological Program
Two full time employees, a psychologist and social worker, provide support to women and children in the community through visits and consultations. Needs assessment of the community was conducted to determine the level of help and assistance to be distributed amongst residents. The type and duration of assistance provided is determined by the case assessment as well as research undertaken of the community.
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Improving the Environment Program
The Program aims to change the behaviour of the residents to make them more environmentally friendly. We arranged for the Egyptian Environment Affairs Agency to come and give the women a course specifically designed for those living in shantytowns on how to be environmentally friendly and how to reduce waste.
We have come to an agreement with a local garbage collector to collect the house refuse from each home for 3 L.E per family per month, of which 1 L.E is paid by the family and 2L.E is paid by Stabl Antar Dream. This was a very important arrangement in order to prevent the already mammoth dumpster piles from growing further. The dumpsters are home to scorpions and snakes creating another danger for the inhabitants.
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Microcredit
We have been offering microcredit since 2001 to 25 different projects out of which only 5 succeeded. We soon realised we needed to go back a couple of steps as these people lacked the correct budgeting, forecasting skills and general aptitude required to keep a business going. Their concerns were limited to how to make it through today, without considering of how they will pay for future stock for example. This myopic attitude was so inbuilt due to their survivalist living style that it proved hard to shake off.
Another thing we needed to train them on before we could provide more microcredit, was how to treat fragile plants and animals with delicate care as this was another main reason for the failure of some projects.
We began to offer microcredit to small businesses and only if they needed it. These include shops and workshop projects such as a grocery shop and a glassmaking workshop. The paying back commenced after 3 months and instead of paying back with added interest, the agreement instead was to train and employ 2 drop out school boys in their workshop.
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