Mobinil and UNICEF launch “Caring For Children”
11 June 2008, Cairo: UNICEF and Mobinil, Egypt’s largest mobile-phone provider, have joined hands towards enhancing the well-being of Egypt’s children. Under the partnership titled “Caring for Children,” Mobinil grants this year approximately 1.5 million Egyptian Pounds (346,000 US Dollars) to implement two projects in the areas of education and health in Upper Egypt. The projects reach about 700,000 beneficiaries. Partnership between UNICEF and Mobinil has first started in Ramadan last year with Mobinil contributing to UNICEF a portion of its revenue out of each call and producing high profile television and newspaper advertisements to raise awareness on the situation of Egyptian children. “Mobinil is proud of its cooperation with UNICEF, especially as our partnership moves on to embrace health and education projects”, says Eskandar Shalaby, Mobinil’s President & CEO. The project aims to strengthen ties between the community and the local Family Health Unit, improve health services and disseminate health related messages through community health workers. Egypt has recently succeeded in decreasing the mortality rate of children under-five and in support of these on going efforts the project focuses on decreasing the mortality rates of infants during their first four weeks which currently constitutes about 50% of under-five deaths. Under “Caring for Children,” the education project will seek to increase the number of children who have access to quality pre-primary education. At present Egypt has achieved progress in primary school enrolment rate with an average rate of 94% but the kindergartens enrolment remains at 18%. Acknowledging the proven benefit of quality pre-school education for children’s developmental readiness for primary education, the project will support the establishment of 60 Kindergarten classrooms in rural areas in Assiut, Sohag and Qena that will be fully operational by the next school semester. It will also provide the necessary training for the facilitators and supervisors. The implementation of both projects will be in close cooperation with the Ministry of Heath and Population, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Solidarity, the civil society and non government organizations. “UNICEF’s slogan is “Unite for Children”. We all have to work together to ensure that children’s rights are met, and for that, strengthening public-private partnerships and uniting all forces of society for children are definitely at the heart of UNICEF’s agenda.” said Dr. Erma Manoncourt, UNICEF Egypt Representative. “Our recent partnership with Mobinil- a company renowned for its philanthropic work- is a very good example of the partnerships that can be formed to deliver effective results for children”. Both projects aim at enhancing community involvement as well as building capacities at local and national levels. Besides its financial contribution, Mobinil will also be providing the health project with technical support in the field of telecommunication to improve the quality of health services in Upper Egypt through facilitating communication between Family Health Units and the community health workers. ___________
For more information contact: Hala Abu-Khatwa, Chief of Communication, UNICEF Egypt Iman Morooka, Communication Officer, UNICEF Egypt
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