EGYPT :  IMG0054.PCD

Photo by Nicole Toutounji - UNICEF/HQ98-054

A group of girls read books just borrowed from the Reading for All' mobile library, part of a UNICEF-assisted community project founded by two national NGOs, the Red Crescent Society and the Integrated Care Society, for victims of the 1992 earthquake, in the Ein el Helwan suburb of Cairo, the capital. 

With a network of social services, by 1996 Egypt has made significant progress in reducing infant and under-five mortality by some 80% since 1980.  Universal child immunization was reached in 1987 and is being sustained, and 98% of eligible children attend primary school (in spite of a gender disparity of 14% in favour of boys). However, 45% of the country's 61.6 million people are now urbanites, one-third of whom live in slums lacking safe water and other basic services. Family incomes have fallen in the last decade and, despite being illegal, child labour has increased to more than 11% of the labour force. As well, in the capital city of Cairo alone there are more than 60,000 street children. At US$80 million, UNICEF's 1995-2000 cooperation programme targets priority needs of urban children and women, as well as of those in isolated hamlets in upper Egypt.