Construction of a new school in Cairo

Project Background

The re-building of the school Ecole du Bon Pasteur on El Attar Street, in Choubrah, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Cairo, will accommodate 480 children from 4 to 14 years old. The old building has always represented a place of dialogue and exchange among different cultures. All students are accepted whatever religious or ethnic group they belong to. The students of l’Ecole du Bon Pasteur are eager to learn and achieve, and glad to go to a school regarded for its high standard of education. These students will be, in their adult life, a strong force in their communities. 

The current building is very old and has sustained much damage over the years. The sisters have tried to do the necessary repairs on a yearly basis but in July 2007 the roof collapsed and destroyed four classrooms. For the last two academic years the students were housed in pre-fabricated temporary classrooms and they experienced extreme cold or heat depending on the time of year. The civil engineers and consultants have advised the sisters to re-build the school. 

Problem

First of all, children coming from poor background can easily fall prey to many kinds of hazards. Without adequate premises, several hundreds of children living in Choubrah are left alone without watching and risk to fall into dangerous trafficking. In large cities like Cairo, it is common to see children as young as 5 dodging cars to try sell gum, flowers, tissues or trinkets to cars waiting at traffic lights. Many of those working children have no families or have run away and live on the streets. The social environment does not encourage and give the opportunity to the children living in poor neighbourhoods to take part in cultural activities which could help them build and assert their personalities. Moreover, the houses are often too small for large families, therefore, children spend a lot of time in the streets playing unsafe street games. In Choubrah, parents earn low income, therefore, sometimes they cannot even afford the school books expenses.

The Sisters of the Good Shepherd have experienced some administrative difficulties, which have delayed the implementation of the project. Indeed taking initiatives and presenting projects to the local administration to get the necessary authorisations turned out to be very complicated and lengthy. First of all, a lot of documents are required to get the necessary permits but in addition these permits are delivered with great delay. Although Christians are for the most part respected; the inter-religious dialogue has known good moments; and above all, the population at large does not show hostility towards the Christians, the Christian schools sometimes find it more difficult to get attention and answers to their projects and requests. 

Objective/Goal

• To construct a three level building comprising a total of 16 classrooms, 18 restrooms and administrative offices.
• To accommodate 480 students ages 4 to 14.
• To offer the opportunity to the children to take part in cultural activities (theatre) and sports.
• To provide the children with a quality education so that they are not tempted by illegal income generating activities.
• To carry on a positive dialogue between the Christians and the Muslims through education. 

School details:

• Each floor would measure 600m2, in total the size of the school will be 1800 m2.
• On each one of the first and second floors there will be 8 classrooms.
• Each class will measure 7m* 8m =56m2, therefore 448 m2 will be the net area dedicated to the classrooms.
• Each classroom is designed to accommodate 30 students. 

Work in Progress…

The Sisters expect to soon receive the long awaited building permit. In the meantime the old buildings have been demolished. However the school activities keep on being carried out in the temporary prefabricated structures.