Engineer Margaret Saroufim, Deputy Minister of Social Solidarity, visited Beni Suef Governorate today, Sunday, where she was received by Bilal Habash, Deputy Governor of Beni Suef, in the presence of Representative Nader Nessim, Member of the Senate, Abdel Hamid El-Tahawy, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Solidarity, and Father Akram Nagi, Pastor of the Evangelical Church in Beni Suef.
The meeting discussed ways to support and enhance cooperation in the Ministry’s programs and activities in the governorate, especially within the framework of the social protection umbrella and economic empowerment programs to support the most vulnerable groups and achieve their economic independence, as well as the efforts of civil society organizations in the governorate and the importance of networking within the framework of development efforts and achieving Egypt’s Vision 2030.
Attention to early childhood
The meeting also included attention to early childhood, as the Ministry of Social Solidarity implements the National Early Childhood Development Program, which is linked to achieving the sustainable development goals that Egypt ratified in 2016 regarding early childhood development, and worked to facilitate the procedures for licensing nurseries based on national standards to ensure the health and safety of children and the quality of the service provided to them, as the meeting stressed the support and strengthening of cooperation between the two sides to serve the community.
The opened nursery provides its inclusive services to children with disabilities
Margaret Saroufim and Bilal Habash, Deputy Governor of Beni Suef, inaugurated the Prodigy Academy Nursery affiliated with the “Together Forward” Foundation. The Deputy Minister of Social Solidarity inspected the nursery, which is built on an area of 1,500 square meters and consists of 5 classrooms. It provides its services to a total of 100 boys and girls, and it also provides its inclusive services to children with disabilities. She praised what she saw of advanced educational and teaching equipment in the nursery, which applies the Montessori curriculum in education.
During the visit, Saroufim expressed her happiness with the achievement she witnessed today by a civil society institution, which confirms the importance and necessity of collaborative work between state sectors and civil society to achieve development goals.
Supporting a number of family and childhood development centers in the villages of Decent Life
The Deputy Minister of Social Solidarity stressed that the Ministry is interested in the early childhood stage from the age of one day to four years, based on investing in people and creating generations aware of the value of the homeland, noting that the Ministry recently signed a cooperation protocol with the Ministries of Education and Local Development and the National Alliance for Civil Development Action to implement a project to support a number of family and childhood development centers in the villages of the presidential initiative “Decent Life.”
This protocol came in accordance with what is included in the document of nursery quality standards, as well as kindergarten standards in Egypt, stressing that these centers will represent an integrated system, as nurseries for early childhood and providing sources of sustainability and workshops to empower women, stressing that providing nurseries supports working women and the mechanism for enabling them to enter the labor market, as it is an intertwined system of awareness, education and empowerment that is consistent with our strategic goals and Egypt’s Vision 2030.
34,000 associations capable of achieving sustainable development
Saroufim explained that the economic empowerment component is one of the components of the Takaful and Karama program, as it provides work mechanisms that enable the program’s beneficiaries to achieve economic independence and escape from the circles of multidimensional poverty. She also stressed that civil society is witnessing an unprecedented boom in light of strong support from the political leadership, and that there are 34,000 associations as an important societal force and a side of the development triangle capable of achieving the sustainable development targeted by our beloved country.
At the end of the visit, the Higher Technological Institute for Applied Health Sciences and the Technological Institute for Nursing, affiliated with the Beni Suef Local Community Development Association for Science and Arts, were inspected, as well as the lecture halls and various laboratories. The Deputy Minister of Social Solidarity was keen to meet with the male and female students, praising the level of technical and practical equipment within the institutes, and pointing out that they represent an addition to the distinguished educational structure of Beni Suef Governorate.
