Egypt launches program to raise awareness on children issues

CAIRO – 12 July 2018: Egypt’s national program, meant for protecting homeless children, organized Wednesday a meeting with a group of officials in charge of social media pages concerned with children's issues to develop mechanisms to spread awareness on such issues on digital media platforms.


The meeting was attended by representatives of international organizations, civil society organizations and the founders, including Samoscial Egypt, UNICEF, Banati Foundation, and Save the Children’s Emergency Fund.

The participants agreed on several recommendations, most notably the enhancement of cooperation between the participants and the comprehensive and full implementation of the national strategies launched on protecting homeless children.

In cooperation with the charitable fund of Tahya Masr, the Ministry of Social Solidarity has been implementing a national program to protect homeless children as part of the ministry's efforts to address such dangerous phenomenon.

The program also launched a hotline -16439- for children asking for help.

An overwhelming state of wrath and horror has dominated Giza residents after three children were murdered and found lying dead on the street.

Organ trade which dominated Egyptian people’s minds especially over the past few years has caused many people to think that the children were victimized by organ trafficking gangs. The youngest of the three children was only one and a half years old, according to the preliminary forensic report.

The bodies were badly decomposed which indicates that the children died few days ago, according to security investigations. The forensic report proved that the children were burnt and have suffocated to death, suggesting that they were trapped in a place where a fire broke out.

Refuting Organ trafficking possibility, a security source said that the body of one of the three children was found to be without any holes, adding that perhaps the holes found in the other two victims’ bodies were caused by the stray dogs or any other factors.

A number of forensic pathologists said they have collected DNA samples, to compare them with that of the families whose children were reported lost. The group said that the final report would be issued within two weeks.

A committee of many high-ranking security officers was formed to investigate the mysterious death of the three children, hear the eyewitnesses, and check the surveillance cameras positioned near the scene.