Monshaat Nasser is a sprawling slum on the outskirts of Cairo. We travelled there from Semiramis Hotel in the business district full of tall buildings and traffic jams, through old quarters with a skyline filled with hundreds of minarets. It appeared that Cairo had many different faces. As we entered the slum area of Monshaat Nasser, there was still another face of Cairo mocking at our memory of the beautiful areas along the Nile. It was an endless slum, with open garbage dumps and flowing sewers. In the middle of the slum was located the clean community centre.
Cairo Slums before transformation
When we entered the community centre, three of its halls were packed with women, many of them young mothers accompanied by their little children. They were taking literacy classes offered by the centre. The enthusiasm on their face had no bounds. The younger ones were already looking forward to acquiring full literacy and then joining the computer training classes held at the other end of the building. Mr Rauf, the manager of the centre, showed us an open space behind the building where they are planning to construct a cultural facility for the people to develop and share talents in performing arts.
What shocked us was that this transformation of the poorest part of Cairo had been made possible in a period of a mere six months. Not too far away was another slum. Here the local community centre was much bigger with a large library, medical check up rooms, crafts and tailoring classes, music lessons, web designing workshops and sports facilities. Around the community centre there were apartment buildings with clean streets, and small but manicured lawns.
Projects such as the ones mentioned above are spreading across the slums of Cairo. Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, an anthropologist and a builder of safe communities, is the First Lady of Egypt. We met her at her home in Heliopolis, a suburb of Cairo.
It was a day when the Muslim Brotherhood had won unprecedented 80 or more seats in Egypt’s parliament of 400 members. Our discussion with scholars and experts in town revealed a degree of insecurity with the changing political map of Egypt.
Suzanne Mubarak was not surprised by the turn of events. She said that people would turn to extremism if they did not have hope. Therefore, she has founded the Integrated Care Society and also got involved in many other social change initiatives with a view to transform ground realities for the poorest of the poor.
Cairo Slums after transformation
“Large numbers are excluded in urban areas like Cairo”, she explained. “These are time bombs, waiting to explode. The question is not merely of poverty alleviation or development. The mission before us is to create a sense of security by building safe communities for the poor. This involves public private partnerships for breaking down slums and turning them into small apartment buildings where the people who were in despair so far, seek pride.”
When the organisations associated with Mrs Mubarak shift the slum dwellers to their new dwellings, they house them in camps for a few months, especially to train them in hygiene, social skills and new ways of life. When a new community is built, the needs of women and children are particularly addressed. A new cultural centre comes up for training women in literacy and self employment. Those who acquire skills in crafts are also taught marketing of their products.
Suzanne Mubarak continued, “The idea behind safe communities and integrated care of the people living there is to build a culture of peace. It is to create the phenomenon of inclusion, since people who are excluded are easily bought by the agents of vested interest who want to use them for violence. Peace is a great word. But what does it mean for children? For children, peace means a sense of security, a sense of belonging, and an ability to receive education. Safe communities aim to provide children precisely with these properties so that they may grow into productive workers rather than suicide bombers.”
We noticed that these communities placed tremendous emphasis on social interaction and the development of voluntary spirit. As we moved from one project site to another, young men and women proudly wanted to show us what they were doing. Many of them had jobs, but had dedicated themselves to community activities in their spare time. Each community centre had a very deliberate emphasis on music, arts and social interaction.
Literacy classes conducted by Suzanne Mubarak 's project in a Cairo Slum
Mrs Mubarak said that it was extremely important to have space for dialogue and listening to each other. It was also important to come together to impact political systems. “My concept of peace revolves around citizens finding their rights and voice at every level. It is integrated with the concept of inclusion. Peace begins at home. The security of the home is the basis of any family life. People need to feel secure and safe within their home first. This is something those of us with privileged background take for granted. But it is a very serious question for families in slums and poor localities, giving birth to violence. Once we achieve security of home in the poorest areas, we need to work for security of a community through the inclusion of all. Such safe communities can then be the building blocks of a safe society and a safe country.”
The experiments such as those made by Suzanne Mubarak in Cairo can also be found in many other parts of the world. Some, like hers, focus on inclusion at the level of foundation of the society. For them, inclusion is sustainable childhood, secure home and a safe community. For them, peace is delivering hope by making inclusion possible. In Egypt, we also met others who are trying to promote inclusion through business actions and changes in the international political system. Perhaps the growth of extremism in the country shows that these policies should have been introduced a few decades ago. Nevertheless, a beginning has been made. There are a few success stories of countries that turned around in the last decade. If the efforts of Integrated Care Society and other initiatives to build social capital bear fruit, Egypt has the potential to achieve a turn around in the next decade. |
