My school (madrasti project)

The project aimed at the overall renovation of the infrastructure of the Kafr el Elw primary school in Helwan in order to address school drop-out phenomena.

What isunique about madrasti is that it stems from the real needs of school who suffer from deteriorating school conditions which pushed them away from school .

Project duration :

8 months from july 2014 februray 2015

Project location:

Kafr El Elw in Helwan ( this includes Kafr El Elw _ Arab Abou Dahroug _ Arab El Barwi )

The Madrasti Projects Achievements:

First: Upgrade the infrastructure of Kafr El Elw Primary School

860 students benefited from the physical upgrading of the school

The work that was done to upgrade the school’s infrastructure included:

• The painting of the internal and external walls and ceilings.
• An electric grid was installed in the whole school.
• The stairs inside the two buildings were repaired and walls and fences were painted.
• Although not planned, the front of the school third building was painted to be consistent with the other buildings .
• Two laboratories were fully developed (not only one as planned).

Work done to renovate the classrooms of Kafr El-Elw school:

• Maintenance classroom floors.
• Repair the windows.
• Carpentry work for the classrooms included repairing 130 desks, although the budgeted number was only 100 desks and installing new doors.
• One hundred new desks were supplied.
• White boards were installed in the classrooms.

Work done to renovate the bathrooms:

• Improved plumbing and sanitation infrastructure.

Work done renovate the playground:

• The walls of the playground were painted.
• The playground of the school was paved with high-quality playground.
• Sports equipment was purchased.

Second: provided school scholarships to 500 students from Kfr El Elw School.

• “Madrasti project” paid school fees for 500 disadvantaged students.
• 500 students were also provided with school uniforms, sport uniforms, bags, school books, copybooks and stationary.

Third: empowering the school board-of-trustees and encouraging community leaders to join it.

The board of trustees identified problems facing the educational environment in the school and suggested solutions for:

• Teacher`s aggressive attitude: parents complained to the school`s administration about the unethical attitude of a particular teacher, who used aggressive ways in teaching her classes. This problem was put to an end to when the teacher was contacted and scolded by the administration.
• Organizing students` departure after school: due to the crowding of students and parents at the end of the school day in front of the school gates, many kids got hurt as they left the gates, accordingly, a number of the natural leaders in collaboration with the Kafr El Elw primary School`s Management- formed a committee. The main task of this committee is to raise the awareness of the parents about the dangers of the children`s presence in the street in front of the school- in the morning and at noon.
• Conducting meetings and discussion to raise awareness about the importance of maintaining and keeping up the school`s facilities and buildings.
• The board of trustees discussed the idea of renovating the school`s other building in addition to continuously providing the school uniform for deprived students. The board also discussed how to replicate Kafr-El-Elw`s model in other schools in the same district. As a result, ADEW identified these needs and delivered them as a set of recommendations to Helwan Cament for their consideration.

Fourth: provide medical care to the people in the area:

• A medical convoy was organized for the inhabitants of Kafr El Elw, Arab Kafr El Elw, Kafr Abou Dahroug and Arab Al Barawy overseen by the ministry of Health. The medical convoy included several medical specialties such as internal medicine, pediatrics, pediatrics thoracic, cardiothoracic, otolaryngology, and orthopedic.
• 800 people received the medical services free-of-charge medications with a 600increase than what was planned.

Fifth: Raising the community Awareness

The project aimed at raising the awareness and sense of ownership through building the capacity of 100 natural leaders to act as a bridge between the local communities and the governmental institutions through the “community Mobilization” program.

•The project reached out to 100 volunteer than men and women who posses leadership skills and live in the targeted areas. Those leaders were trained on assessing the community- based problems, mobilizing the community recourses and communicating with the local governmental officials.
•More than 250 training sessions were conducted on a variety of topics including but not limited to communication, needs assessment and team work.

Community Program Outcomes

• The natural leaders monitored the area` problems and prioritized it.
• Four awareness raising sessions was conducted in partnership with the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency with the participation of the natural leaders.
• The role of Helwan cement factory in the development of the surrounding area and the enhancement of the inhabitants of the area, the workers and their families within the factory.

Sixth: communicating the successful model of partnership between ADEW and Helwan cement through media outlets

An opening conference was held to launch the "Madrasti" project and share its objectives at the school premises after the renovation work was carried out. The conference was held with the participation of several of the stakeholders including but not limited to government officials, media personnel, philanthropists, and public figures.

A documentary film, to share the project achievements with the media and public and public at large, was also produced, the documentary presents the project activities and achievements. It illustrates the successful model of partnership between the private sector, the government and the civil society.