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Country experiences

Egypt: Combating child labour through microcredit

Since 1993, UNICEF has supported a number of microcredit schemes in poorer regions of Lower Egypt and in some urban slum areas. In Alexandria, a microcredit scheme run by a local NGO combines cred it for women with efforts to combat child labour. Each borrowers' group comprises five women, two of whom have working children. The condition for the women's loans is that all the children should go to school. This scheme, in an area with adequate access to basic edu cation, has proved that microcredit can reduce child labour and improve school attendance while at the same time improving the income levels of the participating families. It also shows that parents are willing to send their children to school once the economic condi tion of the family improves.

Source: Project Agreement between UNICEF and El Azaiza CDA, Family Development Fund Project, Cairo, 1996.

Egypt: Three experiences

Sabiha Mohamed is a widow with three sons and one daughter. She has taken three loans of £E1000 each (currently $1 = £E3.37). The first time, she purchased a water buffalo for £E800 and fodder for £E200. After six months, she sold the water buffalo for £E1200 and repaid £E500 as a first instalment. With the rest, she bought another buffalo and sold it for £E1300, giving her the money to repay the balance of her loan and interest. With the net profit, she bought a connection from the water supply authority for her home for £E250. Mrs. Mohamed has since taken out two more loans and now owns a cow and a buffalo. All her children go to school, and she is determined that they will continue their education.

Badra Ali Khalifa is a 55-year-old widow, disabled as a result of a fall and responsible for a grandchild after the death of one of her daughters. On joining the Family Development Fund project supported by UNICEF, Mrs. Khalifa took out a first loan of £E500 and purchased a small quantity of palm branches out of which she made containers for vegetables and fruits, selling them fromher home. She made three to four pieces a day and earned £E6 per day, repaying her first loan and taking a second loan of £E1,000 with which she purchased palm branches in bulk at a lower price. She has diversified her activities and now makes beds and other food containers. She says, "This project has given me hope — a new meaning in life. I have a reason to live. I am not a burden on anyone. My granddaughter will never be in need — I will send her to school."

Bakhita Togan has one son and four daughters. With her first loan of £E500, she started a grocery shop. Making a good profit, she repaid her first loan fully and purchased a gas cooker. She took out another loan of £E1,000 and spent £E500 on her shop, adding fertil izer and other commodities to her inventory. Mrs. Togan purchased four goats and two sheep with the remaining £E500 and earned more profit. Before receiving credit, she was able to afford to send only her son to school, but now all of her five children are in school.

Source: An Assessment of Egypt's Family Development Fund: Achievements and recommendations, by Zamal Uddin Biswas, UNICEF Cairo, August 1996.

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