savior of paper
A series of deception involving all parties of the game. Some citizens deceive the government by many means; fraud, claiming disability, or even faking divorce, that some clerics deceive Sharia to allow. Employees who are charged with implementing the process to guarantee pensions will go to those who deserve seek deception to benefit from the program. The government itself deceives public opinion and leave charities do its own work.
“Takaful and Karama” are two programs announced by the Egyptian government to provide monthly financial aids for those who don’t have fixed income.
That wasn’t the only way to help the needy citizens, it also promoted programs of loans; like “Mastora”. But did this really helped improving their lives? Did these efforts reach the right people, or it was just a bubble propaganda?
Along the road from Cairo to Banha, Qalyubia governorate capital, I was sitting just next to the driver of the microbus, the common cab in Egypt.
I was heading to Banha for two meetings; the first with the Director of Social Affairs, and the second with the MP Jamal Kush.
After a while of silence, I asked the driver when will we reach Banha? “Just within half an hour,” he replied, then we started a long conversation, a conversation that began with a surprising fact for me; the driver is graduated from faculty of fine arts.
His name is Saeed, a mid-forties man, divorced and has 3 sons who have been living with their mother since the divorce.
Everyday from sunup, Saeed drives the microbus, fills it with passengers and begins his daily goings and comings between Banha and Cairo. Nothing upsets him more than the crowded way. It means he’ll gain less profits and this doesn’t help, not at all.
He needs every single pound in his battle to regain his loved wife. “Divorce has never been an option, I’ve never thought about it, never meant to leave her.”
Years before, Saeed met Hanan when they both were young, fell in love with each other. When they grew up, it was time for marriage that mingled with work; he draws clothes and she tailors them. A perfect couple and perfect life. Just two years and everything changed.
Hanan became seriously ill that he had to sell his own car and work for others as a driver. She had cancer, sought financial help from her parents until she recovered her health.
10 Years passed and then cancer reattacked Hanan, draining all the couple’s savings. “Life became too hard, we barely afforded our daily needs and the kids’ education expenses. How would we afford the treatment?”
Her father is working in Qatar, the highest GDP country in the world, and used to send her money, but the latest political crisis between Egypt and Qatar forced him to return and the couple had to find a solution, and immediately.
“At that time, we heard about the loans; Mastoura from Nasser Bank, and Al Orman Association loan.” They needed them both but that was impossible as they are married. Divorce was the only way out, as it’s not allowed for two of the same family to get loans.
“Our neighbor, Sheikh Abdullah, told us that customary marriage is halal in our case.”
At this point, we were about to enter Banha, I still have time so I accepted his invitation
to have breakfast with satisfaction.
His house is in Marsafa, a small village near Banha, where his wife warmly welcomed us. “Since we recognized I have cancer, we started to limit our expenses,” Hanan said.
“We eat meat once a week, and the other 6 days we eat either cheese, potatoes or pasta. Our children have to be well educated, so we sent them to private schools no matter anything else,” she added.
7 Months ago, Hanan began to receive her monthly pension from “Takaful and Karama” program. “I remember her first one, she was extremely happy and bought clothes for the kids.”
A moment of silence, then her broken voice declared, “Saeed didn’t want to dump me because of my cancer, he’s a good man and loves me. That was our only solution to apply for the loans. I got mine and bought a sewing machine and he waits for his to buy a taxi.”
Their neighbor Mr Abdullah, our Sheikh as they call him, is responsible for the small mosque in their village. He joined us and started to clarify the situation, as he also works for Al Orman’s branch in Monofia.
“Day after another, the conditions only get worse. People almost die of hunger, prices got high insanely and the poor continue to increase,” he said.
“The government tries to help. We have the largest base of the poor in Egypt, so it sought our help to implement Takaful and Karama. When Mastoura’s loan was discussed, tripartite meetings between the government, Al Orman and Nasser Bank were hold,” he added.
Sumaya Al-Alfi, assistant of the Minister of Solidarity, told me in a previous interview dated 25 February 2018 that Mastoura program succeeded and offered 2219 projects worth LE28.553 million.
About the importance of “Mastura” for women she said it is a good loan for Egyptian women to transform them from the recipient of support to be productive and active in the community through micro projects.
“The loan is submitted to finance the project through the Zakat Committees of Nasser
Bank branches and targets women who had a monthly income such as a security pension, Takaful and Karama; women who had applied for Takaful and had not received it due to non-fulfillment of conditions, as well as women with low income or women unable to work and have no income,” she stated.
“You know?” Abdullah said, “me and my wife used to count our expenses every month since 2016 and every time, we find out that we need more money than the previous one. Prices got insane.”
Time passed and I had to leave to get to my first meeting. My friend picked me up and headed to the Social Affairs office, but I was 15 minutes late.
The director, who I was supposed to interview was leaving, “oh wait, I’m here!”
“At first, you have to learn to appreciate your dates,” he roughly said while walking to his old, exhausted car, leaving me just in the middle of the office, or what’s supposed to be an office.
Old furniture, pale walls, lack of lights and humidity. “How could anyone work in such place?” I thought. It was too crowded, poor citizens keep insisting on applying and officials yell at them until a women shouted, “my daughter is starving. Should we die to make you believe we need help?”
Two young women of the crowd approached me, little greetings and we started chatting.
Noha, a married woman from Shoubra Al Kheima. She moved to Banha after marriage and became responsible for her little brothers after their mother passed away after a battle with cancer.
“We used to sell fruits and vegetables in Shubra’s market, but Banha differs from Shubra. Here, people prefer hypermarkets than buying from our local market.”
Noha succeeded to get the Takaful and Karama pension, as her husband works as a clean worker. “It helped us afford the basic expenses like electricity. Today, Noha brought her friend to help her apply for the pension.
About LE2500 is required monthly to feed Noha’s small family of 5 persons although they eat meat and fish once a month. They have to provide additional LE1000 to pay for
the children’s education and other bills.
A look to my watch and I realized I have to run to catch my second meeting with the MP Jamal Kush. This time I made it and reached the office on time.
In the mid of 2017, Kush requested to ask the Minister of Social Solidarity on the reasons for not paying Takaful and Karama pension in Banha, demanding the application to all families in the city. My first question was “why did you do so?”
“Lots of Banha’s people asked me to do so, after ignoring the town from the program’s plan in the governorate,” he replied. “And the answer was pointing to the high financial level of its people.”
In contrast to the Ministry’s expectations, a scientific study at Benha University found a rise in the poverty rate in the second half of 2017. The percentage of displaced children in the villages of Qalyubiyah increased to 17%.
In an earlier interview with the media official at Al-Nour charity association in Banha, he spoke about the low standard of living in Banha and the middle-class appeal for the first time on food aid provided by the association.
Beside that, the Egyptian Food Bank has already indicated a five-fold increase in its grants and launched a program to support middle-class families who fall into poverty.
The following morning, I went to the office of Social Affairs. The director, Mohammed Al-Sha’ar, welcomed me and we entered the dialogue immediately for his time.
I started my conversation by asking about the employee who is investigated because of his fraud and presenting his daughter’s name on Takaful program.
Sighing after a moment of silence, he said “I’ll tell you a short story and then finish any talk about the staff!”
“Two days ago, an employer asked to leave for the death of his mother, I know that the situation is difficult, especially that his mother has been paralyzed for 10 years.”
“He’s like my son, but despite all his efforts, he only had a single day off; the funeral day, because of the interest in the ministry’s programs and the presentation in the new course as well as the filtering that made us stop paying the pensions last month and the people got confused with the employees.”
“Imagine one working in this case, how will he treat people? The same idea for the employee transferred to the investigation. I do not defend him and reject what he did categorically, but the employee works from 9 am to 5 pm daily and then goes to a pharmacy where he works throughout the night to spend on his children in secondary school and in college.”
