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22. Mai 2012 |
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Ägypten - Alex hopes (Dezember 2004)
On Site: Sustainable Development in Alexandria
A joint project of Rotaract District 1860 (Germany) and Rotaract Club Alexandria Cosmopolitan (Egypt), matched by RFPD
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Coloured Carriage
Marie Schwake (D.1860) with the owner
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"Hey, our car! This is our car! We have painted it!" Ola is totally excited to look at the coloured carriage, where a woman sells vegetables. "Hello, how are you? What's new? How is Mehnet's father?" the woman responds. Ola is warmly welcomed here, on a local market in this quarter in Alexandria, Egypt. She's in her early twenties and member of the Rotaract Club of Alexandria Cosmopolitan. For nearly three years now she and her clubmates are running this project here. Every Saturday they are visiting people, building networks, supporting the poor. This family got a carriage from the Club to be able to sell vegetables and to take care for themselves.
No - it was not for free. It was a loan, a microcredit loan. The family didn't get money to buy the carriage - probably they would have spent it for food and clothing. The Rotaractors bought it, painted it and handed it over to the mother. She has to pay back the money, with a low interest rate, but now she earns enough to pay back and to feed her children.
 We're in a slum of "Alex", as people here call the second biggest city in Egypt. Average earnings per month are reaching 30 to 150 Egyptian Pounds, which equals 5 to 25 US$ per month. Although life here is much cheaper than in the western world, it is too less to provide three meals per day, clothing and the rent for a flat to a family.
 There is still Ramadan decoration in the streets. They leave it until it falls down by itself. We meet many "cases", who are beneficiaries of the project. On the market are at least three of them. Another family got a donkey, which is pulling a carriage to collect waste. After the waste has been sorted, they're selling plastics and paper again. Children are accompanying us. Watching the display of our digital cameras, they want to know if they will be in TV.
 One women seems to be really "rich" - in the context of this quarter. She build a grocery store. Everything is well assorted, and she sells goods through her window.
Her living room is covered with carpets, because she is praying here, too.
The Rotaractors spend a lot of time on their project. They buy the goods and and bring it to their clients. They look weekly after the families and ask them how they are. They are visiting even families who are not in the program, to get known to future clients. A committee assesses proposals for new cases and how the chances are that they pay back the money and the 7% interest rate, too. Defaults are low, and the money can be reassigned to other people.
 Loans are given to women only. They are the ones to focus on children's diet, family's health and nutrition and the state of the house. Men, it was found, are more likely to spend some of their income on self- gratifying consumptions. Women are much better credit-risk than men and more responsible managers of meagre resources.
An indispensable condition is to visit classes. Illiteracy rate is high with the poor. Now they learn letters and numbers, learn to read, to write and to compute. They're entrepreneurs now, and the classes teach them to run their businesses. The Rotaractors are cooperating with Plan International, using their rooms and their teachers.
 Nutrition and fertility classes play an importanat role, too. The women learn how to feed their children well with low budget. They also learn biological basics of fertility. If they want to pause getting children, they are supported not to become pregnant. Without this, they usually would have five to ten children in their family.
Sewing classes teach them to create create skillfull clothing. They apply artistic decorations on it. When RAC president Nancy married recently, she got skillful wedding gloves from one of the clients.
 Ola leads us to her "ideal case". A hard fate hit the family. The father got ill, and a leg was amputated. He couldn't work any longer, and the family lost their income. Ola offered to help them, but first they refused. The father was too proud to let his wife work for the family. Somehow the Rotaractors convinced them to try it and to take a micro credit. They started with a small shelf of goods on the street. Even before finishing to pay back the loan, the mother said to Ola: "I need to extend my business - it's running very well". And she got a second micro credit - the second shelf was mounted. She sold more and more, paid back her rates - and again she needed to extend her business. She got a third loan, and the third shelf was mounted.
Today, fate again is cruel. The father's second leg was amputated. But thanks to his brave wife, they can feed themselves.
Facts and Figures:
The Alexandria project is a joint initiative of Rotaract District 1860 (Germany) and Rotaract Club Alexandria Cosmopolitan (Egypt). While Rotaractors in Germany raised funds and did the paperworks, Rotaractors in Alexandria did the work on site. The project was matched by a RFPD grant, a New Opportunity Grant and now a TRF grant. Thus a volume of 20,000 US$ has been reached, while US$ 5,000 already have been spent on site.
Some 230 families are participating in this program. This means that at least 1,100 persons get benefits from it. Sustainable income empowers the families to cover basic requirements.
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