EGYPT
NAFAS
The goal of NAFAS is to initiate and manage sports programmes that give street children and young people at risk a place to breathe, hence their name, which means “breath” in Arabic.
By creating a positive space through sports, participants can receive help tailored to their unique needs with social reintegration as the ultimate goal.
Founded in 2012, NAFAS originally focused on helping homeless children who were living on the street, but over the years they have expanded their outreach programme to different areas of Cairo, and now also offer support to young people and men. While priority is given to those with more desperate needs, they have a “don’t turn anyone away” policy.
Country statistics
116 out of 189 in Human Development Index rankings
(UNDP, 2019)
Average annual salary per person $3,000 (World Bank, 2021)
30% of the population live below the poverty line (World Bank, 2020)
Egypt is the most populated country in the North Africa and the Arab world. Most of the country is desert, so about 95% of the population is concentrated in a narrow strip of fertile land along the Nile River, which represents only about 5% of Egypt’s land area (CIA World Factbook).
As of 2021, 30% of the population are living below the poverty line (World Bank, 2020). Around a quarter of the population live in slums. 60% of these are in Egyptian capital, Cairo. More than 21.3 million people live in Cairo, making it one of the most populated cities in the world, and home to a fifth of Egyptian residents (CIA World Factbook, 2021).
In 2016 the Egyptian Government started a rehousing programme and have resettled 750,000 people from slums in social housing across the country (Reuters, 2020).
As of November 2021, youth unemployment (15-24) is significantly higher for women than men, with nearly half of young women unemployed (49.3%), while 12.2% of young men are unemployed (CIA World Factbook, 2019).
STORIES from the region
