Maha Sabry
Project Manager in Orphans Care Association
Egypt
October 26, 2015
One of my priorities as a project manager with the sponsorship program of Save the Children in Egypt is children under the age of 6 years old. Children at that age used to be mostly ignored by their communities. For many people it was a vague stage of life, it was hard for them to understand what the child might need. Save the Children’s Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) program aims at increasing the low percentage of enrollment in preschools, especially in remote areas in Egypt.
When we started the collaboration with Save the Children, through implementing home-based preschools, people started to see the importance of that stage in children’s lives. The home-based preschools project was very successful in finding alternatives to respond to the lack of preschools in Abnoub. People became very well educated on the importance of the preschool stage, resulting in community members reaching out to Save the Children to help them provide more of these services.
Seeing children throughout my visits to the home-based preschools was very touching and inspiring. I was thrilled with the changes we made in those children’s lives, how successful the project was in building a better future for them, and how the children and communities became aware of many new things. Those children helped me realize the importance of what we do.
In one of my recent visits, I met a boy named Mahmoud, while he was playing with blocks and trying to build something. When I asked him what he was doing, he replied “I am trying to build the best thing in Egypt.” I stood there watching him and waited for him to finish as he built the pyramids. When I asked him why the pyramids, he said proudly “because the pyramids are one of our great marks that was built by our great grandfathers and I am trying to be like them.” I was very amazed to see how proud he was of our ancient history at such a young age, and how he had goals and was able to reach them, even on just this small scale.
Another memorable experience was with Mona, a girl I met in another recent visit to the field. Mona cares a lot about her personal hygiene. She was taking her time washing her hands when she saw me watching her. She explained to me that she has learned in preschool the importance of washing hands with soap, killing germs and using her own towel.
I have always loved being a part of the home-based preschools project, but seeing the changes with my own eyes has made me proud and even more willing to give my time and energy to this great cause. Thank you to all the sponsors who help make this possible.
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