Thesis--University of London. / English or Hebrew.

Women's access to micro credit has increased substantially worldwide. International organizations, non-governmental organizations, commercially-oriented institutions and governments support the proliferation of micro credit programs through diverse funding arrangements, and specifically target women to participate in such initiatives. This dissertation explores women's experiences in a micro credit program in Cairo, Egypt, funded by Save the Children (USA) in order to contribute to the growing debate on women's poverty reduction and empowerment potential. Because women's voices are critical the issues are raised through questions regarding women's situation in micro credit and what factors assist women in meeting their choices and concerns, and empowerment outcomes. / A qualitative research study of women's micro credit groups based in Cairo's Abdeen and Imbeba neighbourhoods was used in order to address women's experiences. In the literature reviewed on micro credit and micro finance, international development paradigms for women, and the socio-economic context in Cairo served to identify important influences. Women's sources of power based in the household were used to develop a conceptual framework. Women's triple roles in production, reproduction and community managing, women's practical and strategic gender needs, and theories of women's empowerment formed the principal elements. / Findings were based on interviews and observation with 69 project participants, including 54 women borrowers, of which 11 interviewed women agreed to a second interview, and 4 key staff members of the Group Guaranteed Lending and Savings program. Numerous assumptions regarding the role of micro credit in the lives of low-income women are reported and analyzed. An exploration of women's experiences reveals that, social issues in micro credit are as important, perhaps even more so, than the economic concerns of the projects. Only through building a more complete picture of women's lives can micro credit programs achieve their objective: to contribute to greater gender equity in society. / Keywords. micro credit; women; informal economy; poverty; empowerment; international social work; Middle East

Thèse--Université de Paris. / "Bibliographie": [vii]-ix.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH / Bibliography: p. 64. / by Mohamed Mahmoud El Sioufi. / M.S.

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Little is known about the nutritional status of urban refugees. This study assesses the prevalence of malnutrition in a sample of refugee children in Cairo and analyses associations between growth indicators and their determinants. This cross-sectional study surveyed a sample of African refugee children (n=201) under two years of age. In home interviews, height and weight were measured and maternal and household characteristics, handwashing and breastfeeding practices and recent child illness were assessed. In this sample, 13% of refugee children were stunted, 4% were underweight and 8% were wasted. Multivariate analysis revealed that growth was independently and positively associated with having a flush toilet, good handwashing practices, and not recently having fever. Older children were significantly smaller than reference children of the same age, but child age was not associated with malnutrition. Further monitoring and assessment of long-term growth and development of refugee children in Cairo is required. Good child care practices should be promoted in the community.

The phenomenon of street children is world-wide and on the increase despite numerous programs aiming at its eradication. The failure to adequately address this complex and very diverse phenomenon is the result of conceptual confusion with respect to defining who a street child is. The dominant discourse on street children defines them as victims or deviants to be rescued and rehabilitated. As such, the capacity of many of these children for human agency is occluded by excluding them from participation in the construction of solutions to their problems. I argue that, far from being mere victims and deviants, these kids, in running away from alienating structures and finding relative freedom in the street, often become autonomous and are capable of actively defining their situations in their own terms. They are able to challenge the roles assigned to children, make judgements and develop a network of niches in the heart of the metropolis in order to resist exclusion and chronic repression. I further argue that for research and action with street kids to be emancipatory, it is necessary to acknowledge and respect the human agency the kids display in changing their own lives and to capitalize on their voluntary participation in non-formal educational activities as well as in collective advocacy. / The thesis draws on a participatory action research (PAR) methodology spanning eight years of fieldwork with street kids in Cairo, which eclectically combined street ethnography, street work and action science. I critically review the historical development of these methodologies, and I argue for a conception of PAR as an open-ended process of action and reflective participatory research incorporated into everyday activities and work with excluded, marginalized and oppressed groups such as street kids. As such, I pay special attention to the ethical dilemmas that arise in day-to-day PAR practice.

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The struggle with garbage is not only a physical struggle to deal with the unwanted stuff people throw away. It is also a struggle over meanings. At the centre of that struggle in Cairo are the Zabbaleen: the city's 'informal sector' or 'traditional' waste collectors. Over the past 40 years the Zabbaleen have been the focus of a great deal of outside attention and intervention, especially by the Egyptian state and development organizations. Based on 1.5 years' fieldwork in Cairo, including interviewing, archival work, and analysis of artefacts of mass culture such as film and newspapers, this dissertation asks how different outsiders represented and construed the Zabbaleen, and what they wanted to change about them. Each chapter corresponds to a different outside viewpoint. Chapter 3 examines the beginning of the story of outside development intervention, with the French Mother Theresa figure Sr. Emmanuelle. Starting in 1971, she lived with the Zabbaleen and built schools, hospitals and clubs for them. Chap- ter 4 examines how a popular Egyptian film, which appeared in 1980, used the story of a garbage collector's success as a social metaphor for the country's dysfunction and the overthrow of its mod- ernist ideal. Chapter 5 examines a series of Zabbaleen development projects implemented by the World Bank (water, sewer and electricity) and its consultants (modifications to the Zabbaleen built environment and behaviour) between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. Chapter 6 discusses the Egyptian Government's decision to contract European waste management firms in the early 2000s. Chapter 7 examines why and how the Egyptian state decided to slaughter all pigs (raised by the Zab- baleen) during the 'swine flu' epidemic in 2009, and how this split Christians in the country. The ambition of the dissertation is to make a contribution to critical development studies. It plots the evolution of development thinking and practice over the forty-year period covered (including weigh- ing developmentalism relative to other paradigms of intervention), and demonstrates how interpreta- tions of waste have been central to shaping interventions and imaginaries of 'development' through- out that period.

Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey / The slums of Cairo are a relatively new addition to Cairo. A product of urbanization and Western Structural Adjustment and economic liberalization programs, the slums are built on squatter land on the periphery of Cairo. From their inception, the slums have been informal and as a result, residents lack the resources to change their situation. I will argue that schools must be developed in the slums. These schools cannot be schools similar to other schools in Egypt, but instead must be a product of the slums. These community schools must be developed and run by the residents of the slums to produce change. I argue that these community schools would not only increase educational levels and quality within the slums but would also serve as a means to political and social change. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Islamic Civilization and Societies. / Discipline: Islamic Civilization and Societies Honors Program.