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Looking to the future
Christian Aid is exiting from Bolivia as part of a change programme to deliver greater impact globally. We are focusing our work so that every programme reaches those most in need, addresses the root causes of poverty, speaks truth to power and raises the voices of people living in poverty.
Inspired by our new global strategy, Standing Together, we are deepening our interventions in fewer countries and living as good stewards within our means.
Our Legacy
Christian Aid has been working in Egypt for over 25 years.
Since 2016 we worked with four Egyptian organisations to strengthen the resilience of communities, support people to understand how to access services and resources, and support young people to access employment for a more secure and hopeful future.
Key achievements
Community resilience
Our partner, the Coptic Orthodox Church (BLESS), ran the Community Integrated Development Programme. They worked with over 40 communities across Egypt, supporting them to undertake their own initiatives to end poverty, including providing literacy classes, health clinics, children’s programmes, awareness activities, agricultural training and advocacy to their local government.
A three-year women’s economic empowerment project, funded by the J.A. Clark Charitable Trust, reached 1,800 women in six communities. The project, implemented by our partner Wadi El Nile, supported women and their community through awareness raising sessions for women on their rights and how to claim and protect those rights, public awareness meetings on topics such as violence against women and the importance of including women in decision-making, and training for women in business planning and investment. The project also supported women to form savings groups, which provide small loans for the women to start their own small businesses.
Our partner, the Coptic Evangelical Organisation for Social Services (CEOSS), worked with Egypt’s poorest communities, assisting them through agricultural work around the establishment and development of elected committees and farmers’ cooperatives, building the skills and capacities of farmers and strengthening food security in rural Egypt. Through this work, women formed the first women’s farmers’ associations, and have set up some 70 small businesses.
The more self-confidence I have, the greater success I can attain– I learned this slogan through being involved in the project, and it has encouraged me to do and be what I want... Now I earn money, feel self-reliant and have purpose in my life. This is genuine success!