Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights organized the first meeting for the community committee at Ma'sara in the framework of the project activities relative to the "Integrated Protection for the Families of Prisoners and Detainees - Integration and Rehabilitation".
The project is implemented in cooperation with the Swiss Foundation Drosos in six different areas in Cairo and Giza governorates, namely: (Dar ElSalaam, Basateen and Khalifa - Imbaba and Boulaq - Ma'sara and Atfeeh).
The meeting comes within eighteen community committee meetings planned to support the activities and services provided to the families in the targeted areas by three meetings for each committee in the six areas targeted by the project in Cairo and Giza, in order to provide support, facilitation and services to the local families taking into consideration the fact that the departments and units representatives and leaders are the most connected to the families.
The meeting included a detailed presentation for the project achievements', a detailed description of the roles of the committees members, as well as addressing some of the problems faced by the families in the two areas such as: re-enrolment procedures for the families drop out children; procedures for families to obtain social security pension and the length of the process; and the need of the families that have received vocational and professional training to have access to loans in order to start their income-generating small businesses and to improve their economic situations.
The contributions of the committee's members were positive and they presented a number of initiatives and ideas to support families and to facilitate the procedures such as preparation of social security pension and arrangement of briefings for the families on the required procedures by the social affairs and the services provided by Maat.
When the NGOs administration at the Ministry showed its willingness to cooperate and to link the project families with the active associations in the region to fulfill their needs as much as possible.
It has been suggested that representatives of NGOs and community leaders should implement a number of meetings to increase the beneficiary awareness on their rights, along with the formation of a supportive network of relations of the needs of the families of prisoners and detainees at the businessmen and the good men in the region.
MAAT calls all civil society groups to come together to support and show solidarity to the families of prisoners and detainees.
Maat calls on all sectors of civil society to join hands and solidarity to support and support the families of prisoners and detainees.