Social Support Program
Social inequality remains to be one of the biggest challenges that Egypt faces, especially due to the fact that the country has limited resources vis-à-vis a rapidly growing population. Assisting marginalized families and developing disenfranchised communities by providing them with humanitarian assistance is pivotal to prevent such communities from resorting to extreme measures such as taking their children out of school, child labor, and early child marriage. Humanitarian assistance comes in the form of:
- School packages;
- Food packages;
- Supporting female-headed households to start their own businesses.
Our Reach
Our Impact
The vision of this program is rooted in the Foundation’s belief that “rebuilding communities starts from schools.” By investing in children, we are building the foundations of the future leaders that will help build better communities and in turn, pave the way for a better future for our country. GFD’s main areas of focus in this program are:
GFD provides disenfranchised communities in Egypt with food packages to help them alleviate their everyday struggle to secure their basic needs. By helping such communities fulfil their basic needs, GFD plays a role in helping them eschew negative coping mechanisms.
By empowering female-headed households to start their own projects, GFD helps Egyptian women, from marginalized communities, to fulfill their families’ basic needs and better quality of life. Such projects gradually help in mitigating social inequalities in such communities.
Key Projects
Underprivileged families and individuals struggling to survive on just a few pounds a day often live without access to medical care, adequate housing, decent clothing or a chance for a better future. Gozour’s sponsorship program offered different types of financial assistance which provided income support to children to meet their basic needs and continue their education. This program was mainly supported by individuals, and its activities includes:
- Enforce Re-enrollment: One of the most common effects of poverty is the increase in the number of children who drop out of school at an early age due to the lack of family resources. In its efforts to combat the root causes of poverty, Gozour provided scholarships to students which supported a range of students enrolled in kindergarten through to university.
- Orphan Support: The orphan sponsorship involved providing an adequate income for orphans to secure his/her basic necessities of food, clothing, education and healthcare. Gozour mainly supports orphans from single mother-headed households. By enabling children to live a dignified life and receive a sound level of education, Gozour empowers them to build a brighter future for themselves and for their families.
- Disabled Children: Parents of a disabled child have higher financial needs than the parents of a non-disabled child. They regularly need to pay for special support or equipment, and their ability to earn a full-time wage could be reduced given the time that they need to spend caring for their child. Gozour supports families of disabled children who struggle financially to fulfill the needs of their special children.
- Orphan’s Day Celebration: Orphans require financial support but they also need care, love, guidance, support and tenderness. On a yearly basis during the month of April, Human Concern International (HCI) partner with Gozour Foundation to celebrate the Orphans’ Day with a group of young orphans. The event takes place at ‘Fagnoon’, a unique center where children can freely express themselves and develop both artistic and creative talents. Over the course of that day, children have the opportunity to play together as well as paint, draw, color, and design woodcrafts and textiles. At the end of the day, they children receive presents. The whole day usually brings joy and happiness to the children.
Make a Difference was an extensive program which comprised a vast number of initiatives and fundraising events that sought to engage volunteers to contribute in meeting the social and financial needs of disadvantaged children and poor families in marginalized areas. Gozour Foundation, in collaboration with volunteers from Barclays Bank, implemented the following initiatives:
• Back to School Initiative: volunteers purchased, packed, and distributed school bags to support children in needy families and encourage them to continue their education.
• Bazar El Kheer: volunteers brought clothes, footwear (new and barely used) as well as kitchen and home supplies and sold them at Bazar El Kheer for poor families at nominal prices.
• Career Day: volunteers hosted youth in their offices to build their capacity on how to search for job, write a CV, and conduct interviews.
• Environment Campaign: volunteers participated in a clean-up campaign in El Awayed area in Alexandria and brought and distributed baskets in the street to ensure the sustainability of the initiative.
• School Refurbishment: volunteers participated in painting the class rooms and fences of schools in Alexandria, Cairo, and Giza Governorates.
• Kindergarten Refurbishment: volunteers planted and painted the playground of the kindergarten of Dahshour CDA.
• Cookout: volunteers participated in cooking and distributing meals for children in three orphanages.
• Car Wash Fundraising Event: volunteers washed the cars of their friends and relatives to raise funds to conduct Eye Medical Caravans in Gamaza village in Giza Governorate.