Since April 2003 the Early Intervention Resource Centre in Cairo has been providing rehabilitation services to children with special needs. Children’s families are also offered emotional support and advised on ways to develop their child’s abilities.

There are more than 1.5 million people living with physical and mental disabilities in Egypt and 45% of these are children.

It is estimated that current services and facilities provide assistance to a small fraction of the total number of disabled people.

Project Objectives

• Provide rehabilitation services for children with special needs and their families;

• Raise the local community’s awareness of disability and encourage them to participate in the project;
• Support schools and integrate children with special needs into mainstream education programmes;
• Integrate children with special needs into nurseries;

Project Activities

• Producing low-cost educational materials and toys for children with special needs;
• Organising family support programmes where families who have received disability training can share their knowledge and skills with other families with disabled children;
• Training mothers of disabled children under the age of eight in home-based activities that can encourage development;
• Conducting workshops on early detection of disabilities and effective intervention;
• Organising parent groups for families that are working to help disabled children;
• Training pediatricians, nurses, teachers, child-development trainers and community-based rehabilitation workers;
• Supporting nurseries and schools in the area;
• Initiating and supporting community-based rehabilitation projects in slum areas;
• Initiating and supporting pre-school child nutrition projects in nurseries;

Beneficiaries

More than 1,000 children have benefited from the services that the centre offers. The local community and people working with special needs children have also benefited from the training programmes.

"Islamic Relief is striving for a fairer world. Our mission is to help the poor and needy to live sustainable, self-reliant lives within safe and caring communities. Our work is guided and shaped by the core values of accountability, humanitarianism, neutrality and impartiality, inclusiveness, integrity and co-operation, all of which are also integral to the Islamic faith."
Dr Hany El Banna - Founder of Islamic Relief

Islamic Relief was established in 1984 and our unique approach is the result of these many years of hands-on experience.

1. Where possible we adopt a community partnership-based approach; encouraging community involvement, understanding and ownership of projects.
2. We run the majority of our field projects ourselves, giving us direct insight into the problems faced and how best to solve them.
3. We aim to empower those we help in order to achieve sustainable results.
4. Though our emergency response teams are quick to respond to emergencies around the world, we continue to support communities long after the initial media interest has died down.
5. We recruit staff locally to benefit from their local knowledge. This ensures that we are culturally sensitive and allows us to reach communities and areas other organisations cannot.
6. Where necessary we coordinate our work with other reputable aid agencies, local organisations and governments.

Millennium Development Goals

Islamic Relief is committed to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which have been agreed by the world’s leading development institutions in an effort to meet the needs of the world’s poorest by the year 2015. 

The goals:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

For more information about the MDGs, please visit: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/