A group of ‘Active Citizens’ of the British Council cooperates with members of the Fadilia Foundation to develop a less privileged area in Egypt as part of a project called the ‘Virtuous Alley’.
Active Citizens is a social leadership training programme that promotes intercultural dialogue and community-led social development. Together with the non-profit social enterprise Fadilia Foundation, they launched four projects aiming at transforming ‘Ezbet Khair Allah’ area to a ‘Virtuous Alley’.
The first project is called “The Camp” aimed at helping children aged between four years old and 12 years old to discover their talent and passion through modern training methods and technology. The second project is called
The second project is called “FnMade” which is an online marketplace aiming to allow 3000 people to showcase and sell 15,000 handicrafts and in doing so, reduce unemployment.
“Sprout” is dedicated to cleaning, painting and decorating the walls of houses on the streets.
The fourth and final project is “My right to live” which aims at securing free artificial milk banks for infants under the age of one year old in order to support disadvantaged families.
Fadilia Foundation works in the field of community development for the sake of building the virtuous city community – or Utopia community, in less privileged areas. They launch projects in aimed at creating sustainable development to empower the people.
Ezbet Khair Allah expands over an area of 2 square kilometers (480 feddans) with an estimated population of 700,000, making it one of the largest and most densely populated informal communities in Egypt.
Ezbet Khair Allah area is one of the largest unplanned communities in Egypt. Residents of the Ezbet Khair Allah have been living under the constant threat of having their homes demolished. They miss the most basic services including water, sewage, and electricity.
In Cairo, about 63 percent of the population lives in 81 informal areas, constituting 11 million people out of the city’s total population. In the Giza governorate, there are 32 slum areas, while Alexandria has 41.
Informal settlements in Egypt started around the 1960s due to the immigration movement from rural to urban areas. People started forming informal communities looking for jobs and a better quality of life.
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[…] side of theatre production to a young group of inhabitants from the underprivileged district of Ezbet Khayrallah in Cairo, in collaboration with the district’s local NGO Tawasol, which was established back […]
[…] side of theatre production to a young group of inhabitants from the underprivileged district of Ezbet Khayrallah in Cairo, in collaboration with the district’s local NGO Tawasol, which was established back in […]