Drug Demand Reduction among Street Children in Egypt

With some 16 million inhabitants, Cairo is the biggest city in Africa and the Middle East. But Cairo is also host to a rapidly growing population of street children – around 150,000. These children deal with broken families, poverty, abuse, violence and the harmful effects of drug abuse.

In the summer of 2000, UNODC rallied the UN family in Egypt to address the plight of this vulnerable youth group. A Rapid Situation Assessment initiated by UNODC and conducted in cooperation with UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP), highlighted that almost 66 per cent of a sample of street children consume substances of abuse on a habitual basis, from cigarettes, glue, Bango (cannabis herb) and hashish, to solvents and tablets (Parkinol, Rohypnol).

Drug abuse provides the children with some relief from the pressures of the street, and enables them to endure pain, violence and hunger. But, unfortunately, there is more. Eighty percent of the children interviewed reported that they were exposed to violence from employers, hostile or abusive community members and their peers. Ignorant about health, this sub-population also lacks access to medical services and suffers from deprivation, malnutrition and unhygienic living conditions. Functionally illiterate (70 per cent of a sample were school drop-outs, 30 per cent had never attended schools), economic survival means working at menial tasks, begging, stealing or prostitution.

In response to the problems analyzed in the Rapid Situation Assessment, a project document was developed “Drug Demand Reduction among Street Children in Egypt”. The project builds up comprehensive drug abuse prevention and treatment services for street children in Cairo and Alexandria at selected governmental and non-governmental institutions. It also provides assistance for the development of a programme of action on prevention and treatment, the development of institution and reception centre facilities, including vocational training units, and trains the staff at these institutions. A children at-risk monitoring system is also being developed and police detention facilities for street children are being upgraded, with special training for police officers. The two-year project is being implemented with the assistance of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood.

This most vulnerable group in society needs to be protected, educated and sheltered from unnecessary pain so that these children may have an active and productive future.