Marginalized Groups

Photo: Hawer Hussein/Mercy Corps

Across all the world’s nations, according to all religions and man-made constitutions, children should be given special care and kept away from struggles and conflicts. They are more valuable than any natural and industrial resource that a country might have. In our work, we must pay special attention to children, fulfill their needs and offer them the opportunity for a prosperous life.

Wherever war or disaster happen, melancholy follows, and children are among those most affected. In such situations, humanitarian agencies must put forth all their efforts to jointly aid the children and help them work through their shock and trauma, because children can not grow normally in an abnormal condition.

Iraq is a perfect example of a country where children need all sorts of assistance. We're working with parents and communities across the country to do just that.

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Delma Gomez (center, in white sweater and black floral shirt) is now able to buy plenty of nutritious food for her children, thanks to the income she earns through Mercy Corps' IMARE program. Photo: Mercy Corps Guatemala

USAID's Frontlines magazine recently showcased Mercy Corps Guatemala’s Innovative Market Alliance for Rural Entrepreneurs (IMARE) program through the personal story of Delma Gomez, one of the first women to start working with the program. The 32-year-old Gomez says that, before being involved in the program, she spent all of her time at home doing housework and taking care of her children because there were no places in the community where women could work.

"The project has been a huge benefit because before we didn’t have any opportunity to work and earn money" Gomez said. "Now with what I earn at the packing center, I have been able to improve what my children eat.”

Gomez estimates most of her earnings, around 70 percent, go towards purchasing food for the family. She also said that her children are sick much less often now and seem to be growing faster as well.

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Graduates of Mercy Corps' literacy programme in Basra, Iraq, proudly holding their certificates. Photo: Awatif Khalil/Mercy Corps

Before I started working with Mercy Corps' Women’s Awareness and Inclusion (WAI) programme, I was working with another non-governmental organisation on land mine awareness and education. Since joining Mercy Corps, I've had more of a chance to visit and learn more about southern Iraq's rural communities — and the women who live there.

My work with WAI has showed me how much women suffer to get their basic rights, opportunities and break the chains of the old traditions. The programme teaches women how to read and write, which gives them the confidence to stand up for themselves and claim what is rightfully theirs. Over the last four years, 3,164 women from the city of Basra have graduated from the programme — overall, more than 25,000 women from across southern Iraq have participated.

One of them is 34-year-old Ahlam.

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Egypt's recent revolution has plagued Cairo's Zabbaleen community and other marginalized groups with uncertainty about their place in a quickly-changing society.

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Egypt's recent revolution has plagued Cairo's Zabbaleen community and other marginalised groups with uncertainty about their place in a quickly-changing society. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

With all the excitement and newness surrounding Egypt’s January Revolution, it can be easy to forget that Egyptians have been working for change in their country for decades. I recently met Marie Assad, an Egyptian woman in her mid-80s who has been working to help her fellow Egyptians for more than 50 years.

When asked about her take on the revolution, Marie said, “Egypt is a very old country with a new life.”

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Since arriving in Cairo three weeks ago as a member of Mercy Corps' Egypt assessment team, I have had the opportunity to meet and befriend many of those who participated in Egypt’s recent revolution. In order to fully understand the needs of young people in the “new Egypt,” Mercy Corps is studying the factors that motivated youth across the country to unite in quest of political and economic reform.

Farida and Amal. Photo: Tara Noronha/Mercy Corps

But how would one prepare for a meeting with one of those behind Egypt’s stunning movement? And who would you imagine to be one of the driving forces that toppled an oppressive 30-year-old regime, with the entire world watching?

In a buzzing café in downtown Cairo, the answer arrives to meet me in an unlikely package.

Amal Sharaf is a pint-sized 36-year-old with soft, gentle eyes and a thoughtful smile. She greets me warmly, as if we are old friends, and introduces me to her sidekick, daughter Farida. As we get settled in to steaming cups of Arabic coffee and chai koshry, I look across the table and wonder…was this tiny lady really one of the initial drivers of one of the most powerful movements in the region's history?

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Nagla standing on the rooftop, the one small room where she lives with her family in the background. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

High above Tahrir Square, 33-year-old Nagla Abdad watched the January 25th Revolution unfold. She had one of the best seats in the house for the first time in her life.

“I have lived on this rooftop since I was four years old,” she explains. “We can’t afford rent, so my father acts as a guard for the apartment building, and in exchange we get one small room on the roof to live.”

Nagla, her brother and her parents all share a single room that was originally meant for storage space. They don’t have running water or a toilet on the roof, so they have to go down six flights of stairs to use the public washroom in the building lobby.

Nagla is just one of the millions of people in Egypt who struggle daily to meet their basic needs. Twenty percent of the population of Egypt lives under the poverty line.

The protestors in Tahrir Square who successfully ousted President Mubarak from rule called for democracy and fair elections, but much of the a large percentage of the protestors had less lofty goals.

“With a new government, I want the price of food to go down,” says Nagla. “And we want an end to the corruption and abuse by the police. “

Nagla's father in their one-room rooftop home, which also serves as storage for the building. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

For decades, the people of Egypt have lived under a system that granted favors and huge advantage to a select few, while excluding the majority of the population from economic opportunities, basic services and rights.

Now, after the fall of the Mubarak regime, many of the people who have lived on the margins of society are excited about their future, but still have a long way to go before they can fully participate in a democratic society with rights as well as responsibilities.

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Rifat Sulejmani (right, in red shirt) and part of his eight-person family in front of the house that Mercy Corps helped provide them after years of displacement and life in squalid camps. Photo: Blerim Cerkini/Mercy Corps

“Life in the camps was terrible for my family and all who lived there” said Rifat Sulejmani, a former refugee in Mitrovica, Kosovo. “Living in a ghetto was very difficult; there were very bad living conditions like shared bathrooms, it was crowded, small barracks, lack of food and clothes, and many other things.”

Rifat is 58 years old and heads a family of eight (including his wife, daughter, two sons, granddaughter and two daughter-in-laws). Prior to the war of 1998 and '99, he and his family lived in Roma Mahalla; during the war, they were forced to move to the Zitkovac refugee camp in North Mitrovica. In 2004, they moved again to the Osterode camp, hoping to find better living conditions.

Mercy Corps’ European Union—Mitrovica RAE Support Initiative, funded by the European Commission, started in February 2010. The project is aimed at permanently resettling the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian (RAE) community to better and safer living environments. The RAE people have lived in refugee camps for more than a decade in North Mitrovica, and are numbered among thousands of Internally Displaced People (IDP) in Kosovo.

Rifat first heard Mercy Corps’ name in 2008 when Mercy Corps began working in his community. He did not realize then that the organisation would change his life forever in only two short years. During the first months of 2010, the Sulejmani family received long awaited news: they had been selected to receive a new home from Mercy Corps’ project. The family was one of 38 families resettled back in the Roma Mahalla district during the resettlement phase of the project.

”We are very happy to have our own home. We lived long enough in the camps — I don’t even like to recall the experiences we had for more than 10 years there,” Rifat said.

New homes are not the only benefits offered by Mercy Corps. Rifat’s son, Sulltan, explained that he was able to attend a vocational training though the programme: “With Mercy Corps’ support, for three months I attended vocational training at the Regional Vocational Training Centre in Mitrovica to become a cook. At the end of the training I got a certificate and now I am a qualified person. This will help me a lot to establish our future business.”

The Mercy Corps programme also provides Income Generation grants to help resettled families who have clear business plans. Rifat’s family has over 30 years of experience as butchers, and with Sulltan’s new certification as a cook, their goal to open a kebab shop in Roma Mahalla is not far off.

Sulltan looks forward to providing for his family and settling into the family’s new permanent home. “We are satisfied with our neighbors and we feel better now. We have a place to live and now we are focusing on how to reintegrate into our new living environment,” he said. “Through this grant, our family business will generate a monthly income of up to £240 dollars.”

With a new home and the prospect of a family business, the Sulejmani family can begin to reestablish the lives they lost in 1999. The security, independence and dignity that they have been deprived of during their displaced years will slowly — but surely — be recovered.

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Ramadan Sahiti with the hay baler his community was able to purchase through Mercy Corps’ Livelihoods Enhancement for Returnees programme. Photo: Blerim Cerkini/Mercy Corps

Ramadan Sahiti is a 37-year-old Roma farmer from the village of Koshare/Košare in southern Kosovo. Ramadan and his family recently returned to their home village of Koshare after a nearly 12-year absence; he and his family fled the village after their house was burnt down during the 1999 conflict in Kosovo. The family has been unable to return to the village for lack of resources and employment opportunities since then.

But recently, through Mercy Corps’ Livelihoods Enhancement for Returnees programme, Ramadan learned of renewed economic opportunities and job support for those wishing to return to their homes. Moving into housing made available by the Municipality, Ramadan, his wife and four children returned to Koshare to restart their lives and recover the lost years.

Soon after returning, following a series of community meetings, local farmers nominated Ramadan to act as the primary representative of an agricultural improvement project with Mercy Corps and the local government. With a matching investment from the community, Mercy Corps supported Koshare to purchase and manage use of a hay baler, helping to resolve the problem of the lack of sufficient fodder for livestock and very high transportation costs to purchase and transport feed.

“As a result of this community project, so far I have made 20,000 hay bales [valued at more than £31,800] for 50 families to use for their livestock needs; and the surplus they will sell in the local market,” Ramadan boasts. “In addition, I helped six families with free-of-charge service, while other families have paid a 50 percent lower price than market rates during the season.”

Ramadan continues: “The equipment is essential for our needs, especially during spring and summer season. We help each other by sharing our equipment to plow, plant, harvest, bale and transport the bales. The villagers are happy to have the equipment nearby, because the weather in our area can cause trouble for the crop.”

With the new machinery, Ramadan and other farmers have increased the surface of land used by an average of more than 70 percent. With greater arable land and fewer household expenses going towards hay for livestock, farmers in Koshare have been able to increase the size of their livestock herds.

Ramadan reports monthly his earnings for the season of May to December 2010 at more than £180 each month, while employing three people who each earned around £156 per month. “I have increased my family’s herd to seven cows so now I’m able to earn a daily income of £9 by selling milk from my cows and £6 by selling milk from my 12 goats,” he continues. “This year, I will also have seven calves that I intend to sell and seven to nine goat kids that I’ll keep to increase the goat herd. Remember,” Ramadan takes a long pause, “last year I had only four dairy cows and no goats!”

With increased land planted, more feed for livestock and a growing herd of cattle and goats, Ramadan is better able to support his family of six, and they are more comfortable getting resettled in their new — old — home.

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Two young Zabbaleen girls in Garbage City, a slum at the base of Mokkatam Hill on the outskirts of Cairo. Its economy revolves around the collection and recycling of the city's garbage.

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