Joining Hands with Egypt - Day 2

The Des Moines Presbytery's Hunger Action Enabler and Social Ministries Task Force Moderator Nancy Lister-Settle writes of her trip to Egypt, October 11-18, 2011.
Back in Cairo, we met with one of the first organizations to enlist in the Joining Hands-Egypt network: Association for Protection of the Environment (APE). This group works in Moqattam with the community of garbage collectors, the Zabaleen. APE has been offering training to the women of the community in paper-making, rug weaving and patchwork along with literacy classes and children's programs. Since March of this year they have been holding civic education workshops as part of the Together for Family Development (TFD) campaign. We met with the APE project leadership.

The APE staff told us about their approach to enabling citizens. They worked with a television production company to create a role play illustrating the important elements of active citizenship and presented it in four locations and at the big Coptic Orthodox Church in Moqattam. They selected 10 women from the community to take the workshop to their own neighborhoods--training trainers. The role play was recorded and now can be shared with other organizations.

The staff told us they feel that the people of Moqattam now know the language of politics, they can think for themselves about candidates and issues, and they have a new sense of responsibility to take part in the upcoming elections.

I asked if the common people had access to candidates so that they could express their concerns and raise the issues that are important to them. The women told me that the candidates would not meet with the voters, but instead would make appointments with community leaders (i.e., the priest at the Coptic Orthodox Church in Moqattam). After thinking a minute, one of the ladies from the community commented that they needed to make sure that the priest knew what the critical issues for the Zabaleen actually were!
There is concern, of course, that intimidation and violence will erupt at election time--especially in the slums of Cairo--which would keep people from going to vote. Husbands would keep their wives at home rather than expose them to danger, so the women would not be able to participate.
 
The final request from the staff of APE and the women who have taken part in the civic education program: "Pray for us and all of Egypt during these uncertain times."

Joining Hands with Egypt – Day 1

The Des Moines Presbytery's Hunger Action Enabler and Social Ministries Task Force Moderator Nancy Lister-Settle writes of her trip to Egypt, October 11-18, 2011.

I've been waiting since February for this visit to our Joining Hands partners in Egypt--those plans were interrupted by the revolution. Last Sunday, when Dave Best and I were preparing to leave, news of violence in Cairo caused a flurry of phone calls and emails from concerned family, friends and PC(USA) staff.
We made the decision to leave on Tuesday as scheduled. We came with the understanding that our itinerary would be adjusted, to avoid areas of high tension. The Joining Hands network here decided in March that it was imperative that they adjust their campaign for 2011 to focus on enabling people to be informed citizens for the upcoming elections. After a three-day workshop for network representatives, each member organization designed a project especially for their own community.

Nancy Lister-Settle is in the back row, standing, second from the right.
David Best is in the center, middle row, seated.

On our first day, Dave and I traveled to Alexandria to hear from partners there about their project. Nada Thabet and Village of Hope work primarily with families of children with disabilities. They designed a program to teach political terminology, how to assess parties and candidates, the electoral process, and understanding political campaigns. They decided to work in primarily in poorer areas of Alexandria because people there were generally less educated and had less access to information. Even though their workshops were promoted to the families they serve, they were open to anyone elegible to vote.
We met with women who had already completed the training; their experience was profound:
"The women are humble, simple people and they were very excited to learn new things!"
"We didn't know political terminology, so we had been easily influenced before--after the training we could think for ourselves."
"We thought our voice and our votes were useless."
"If you see something that isn't going well, you can vote for better representatives who share your concerns."
One woman told us that before she came to the training she knew little about politics, and she wasn't searching to know more. She said the training opened the door and transformed her and the other women she works with.
In addition, the larger association of organizations in Alexandria, all working with the disabled, agreed to all support a candidate or party who put the rights of the disabled in their platform. They are also working with officials to make voting accessible to adults with disabilities.

As our conversation ended I asked the women if they believed that the people who had attended the trainings would all vote. They replied, "No, not all of them. Probably 90%."
Nada and the Village of Hope also created a small, easy to understand booklet as part of their training for political life--these will be available to anyone.
The next morning Dave and I enjoyed a relaxing morning with Nada and her family beside the sea. It was easy to imagine a brighter future for Egypt after talking with our Alexandria partners.