By Samar Samir, The Cairo Post “I used to get up at 8 a.m. to go with my father to plant the land and irrigate it at noon, then I went to the field in the afternoon to feed the animals until evening,” said Omar, 11, a small-framed boy speaking from behind thick glasses. Omar began to suffer from seizures from sun exposure, and is unable to stay outside for more than five minutes, said his mother Sabah, 35, a farmer in the village of Abdullah Elewa in Fayoum (107 kilometers from Cairo). “Because the only school available is so far away from our village, I did not send Omar because it is very hard for me and he was planting the land with his father,” Sabah said, adding that Omar’s work saved the family from having to pay hired workers. In 2010, approximately 1.6 million children were actively working in Egypt, according to a comprehensive survey conducted by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) and the International Labor Organization (ILO). Since then, however, the number has increased; the World Food Program and the European Union in…
