Assessing the Effectiveness of Street Girls Ngos in Egypt: with Whom? in What Specific Context?

Assessing the Effectiveness of Street Girls NGOs in Egypt: With whom? In what specific context? Thèse Amira Mohamed Kotb Doctorat en études internationales Philosophiae doctor (Ph.D.) Québec, Canada © Amira Mohamed Kotb, 2015 Résumé (Fr) Depuis les années 80’s, plusieurs ONG locales et internationales opèrent en Egypte afin d’éradiquer le phénomène des enfants de la rue. Cependant, le phénomène persiste et donne lieu à une seconde génération d’enfants de rue, notamment avec la présence de jeunes filles dans la rue. Par ailleurs, un large pourcentage de ces mères refuse d’abandonner la rue ou de rejoindre les programmes de réhabilitation des ONG. Non seulement une génération de petits-enfants de rue voit le jour mais en 2011, ces enfants commencent à prendre part dans des affrontements violents contre l’armée et les forces de sécurité égyptiennes. La dégénération du problème pousse l’Etat Egyptien –jusque-là quasi réticent d’aborder en profondeur les causes du problème- à engager un bras de fer avec les filles et les garçons de la rue. Selon l’Etat, l’approche « de sauvetage » appliquée par les ONG se serait avérée ineffective et par conséquent, devrait céder la place à une approche « punitive » à l’égard des enfants de la rue. Ainsi, l’Etat décide de construire un « village » isolé sous l’égide de l’armée égyptienne où les enfants de la rue seront groupés et placés contre leur gré. Entre les limites de l’approche de sauvetage et la violence de l’approche punitive, cette thèse cherche à trouver une troisième voie où les efforts des ONG et de l’Etat pourraient aboutir à des solutions plus adaptées aux besoins des enfants de la rue. A travers un échantillon de 30 filles de rue, cette thèse tente de repérer les facteurs causant la faible réceptivité des filles de rues aux programmes des ONG et limitant l’effectivité de l’approche de sauvetage. Pour ce faire, la thèse utilise l’approche de l’écologie sociale de Bronfenbrenner pour étudier les cinq couches formant l’environnement de chaque fille et interagissant pour affecter son processus de prise de décisions. L’effet de chacune de ces couches sur la réceptivité des filles de rues aux ONG est ensuite analysé statistiquement afin d’aider les ONG à concevoir des programmes sur mesure qui répondent aux besoins spécifiques de chaque fille de la rue. iii Abstract (En) Since the 1980s, many local and international NGOs have been operating in Egypt to solve the problem of street children. However, the phenomenon persisted and produced a second generation of street children, largely due to a high number of young girls living on the street. A large percentage of these street mothers refuse to abandon the street or to join rehabilitation programs provided by NGOs. Not only a new generation of street grand- children was born but in 2011, these children began participating in violent clashes against the Egyptian Army and Security Forces. The degeneration of the problem pushed the Egyptian State, thus far unwilling to address the roots of the problem to launch an iron fist policy against street girls and boys. According to the State, the “rescuing” approach adopted by NGOs has proven ineffective and consequently must be replaced by a “punitive” approach to deal with street children. Therefore, the State decided to build, under the supervision of the Egyptian Army, an isolated “village” where street children will be gathered and placed against their will. Between the limits of the rescuing approach and the violence of the punitive one, this dissertation seeks a third path, where the efforts of NGOs and the State can lead to solutions more tailored to the needs of street children. Through a sample of 30 street girls, this dissertation tries to locate the factors causing the low responsiveness of street girls to NGOs and limiting the effectiveness of the rescuing approach. For this purpose, the dissertation uses Bronfenbrenner’s social ecology approach to study the five layers forming each girl’s environment and interacting to affect her decision making process. The effect of each layer on girls’ responsiveness to NGOs is then analyzed statistically to help NGOs design programs that better address the individual needs of each street girl. v Table of Contents Résumé ............................................................................................................. iii Abstract ............................................................................................................. v Table of Contents .............................................................................................. vii List of Tables ..................................................................................................... xi List of Chi‐square Tables ................................................................................... xiii List of Figures .................................................................................................... xv Abbreviations .................................................................................................. xvii Dedications ...................................................................................................... xix Acknowledgments ............................................................................................ xxi Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 A. Street children: a global concern for NGOs and governments 3 B. The street children’s phenomenon witnessing two turning points in Egypt…for now 4 C. A potentially scary scenario in the southern hemisphere 6 D. Egypt’s street girls as a case study 7 E. The key question 9 F. Thesis’ Chapters 10 Chapter 1: Street children in the academic literature .......................................... 13 1.1 Who are street children? 15 1.2 Types of street children 16 1.2.1 Different Push‐Pull factors 17 1.2.2 Different degrees of entrenchment in the street 18 1.2.3 Different survival strategies 19 1.2.4 Different reasons for exiting the street 19 1.2.5 Different legal status 20 1.2.6 Where does the current thesis stand? 22 1.3 Four approaches to deal with street children 22 Chapter 2: Studying street children in the .......................................................... 25 Egyptian context .............................................................................................. 25 2.1 Defining Egypt’s street children 27 2.2 Counting Egypt’s street children 29 vii 2.3 H ow does Egypt deal with its street children? 29 2.3.1 The civil society: rescue, empowerment and advocacy 30 2.3.2 The government: sanctions, strategies and preventative laws 32 2.3.3 International organizations: coordinators and capacity builders 36 2.3.4 Street girls in the eyes of the Egyptian society and NGOs 37 2.4 Studying street children in Egypt 38 2.5 How children’s environment impacts NGOs’ effectiveness 38 2.5.1 Children’s social ecology 39 2.6 Hypotheses 41 2.7 Methodology 42 2.8 Sample and Data Collection 43 Chapter 3: Girls’ responsiveness to NGOs in light of their Micro‐ and Meso‐ Systems ........................................................................................................... 47 3.1 Introducing the 30 street girls of the study sample 49 3.1.1 Family’s economic background 49 3.1.2 Social status of their care provider 50 3.1.3 Educational level attained 51 3.1.4 Families’ criminal records 52 3.1.5 Age when they ran away 53 3.1.6 Criminal records prior to homelessness 53 3.1.7 Time period spent on the street 55 3.2 Girls’ responsiveness to NGOs in light of their push factors 55 3.2.1 Eight push factors 55 3.2.2 Push factors and girls’ responsiveness 66 3.3 Girls’ responsiveness to NGOs in light of their coping pattern with the street community 75 3.3.1 Girls’ patterns on the street 75 3.3.2 Girls’ patterns and girls’ responsiveness to NGOs 87 3.3.3 Families and street communities: their impact on girls’ responsiveness to NGOs 88 3.3.4 Street violence and girls’ responsiveness to NGOs 90 3.4 Conclusion 91 Chapter 4: Girls’ responsiveness to NGOs in light of their Macro‐ and Exo‐ systems ............................................................................................................ 95 4.1 Girls’ responsiveness to NGOs in light of girls’ needs 97 viii 4.1.1 Girls’ needs 97 4.1.2 Girls’ children 103 4.1.3 How do NGOs help 108 4.1.4 Girls’ needs and their responsiveness to the program 111 4.2 Previous experiences with institutions 117 4.2.1 Experience with correctional institutions 117 4.2.2 Experience with NGOs 121 4.2.3 Impact of girls’ previous experience with institutionalized care 125 4.3 Conclusion 128 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 131 A. Reminder of the starting point 133 B. Study’s findings with regards to the environment of street girls 134 C. Study’s findings with regards to the variables affecting girls’ responsiveness to NGOs 136 D. Study’s verification of its main two hypotheses 137 E. Recommendations 138 Bibliography .................................................................................................... 143 Annexes .......................................................................................................... 151 Annex1 ‐ Statistics of Hope Village regarding street children ................................................................... 153 Annex 2 ‐ Interview Questionnaire ............................................................................................................

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