“Empowerment”  A Model of Social Justice for Marginalized Communities in Egypt

Ezbet El Haggana is one of 18 informal areas that surround Cairo. The area is located at the kilo 4.5 on the Cairo-Suez road.  Currently, close to one million people inhabit this area.  These inhabitants suffer from abject living conditions due to severe deficiency in basic services. The area suffers from a shortage in basic physical and social infrastructure such as water pipes, telephone lines, electricity, schools and health facilities.  These abhorrent living conditions are exacerbated by the residents’ lack of any legal tenure status. Accordingly, the project’s goal is to empower the residents of Ezbet El Haggana, civil society organizations (CSOs) and marginalized groups in this slum area to realize their basic human rights of access to water as a means towards social justice.

The project’s specific objectives are:

1)  Awareness raising campaign about the concept of  social justice: The campaign will include six awareness raising sessions that target 120 individuals from Ezbet El Haggana community;

2)  Connecting 50 households with access to safe drinking water. By doing so, this activity will benefit around 2000 families (50 households * 5 families per household * average of 8 individual per household);

3)  Mobilizing and organizing community’s residents and CSOs to advocate for right to safe drinking water;

4)  Organizing roundtable discussion with policy makers and local authorities (such as local council of Nasr City, Water Authority and other local policy makers).