WATANI International
19 June 2011
Watani’s Braille editor Sherifa Massoud, who is herself blind, talks to Safeieddin Kharboush
I was first introduced to the head of the National Youth Council (NYC), Dr Mohamed Safeieddin Kharboush, in August 2009 during a youth seminar where I was representing the Developmental Association for Empowering Special Needs (DAESN), an NGO that trains the visually impaired and helps place them in work.
The NYC expressed an interest in purchasing computer software for the visually impaired, and our conversation turned to ministry-sponsored youth activities. Our delegation told Dr Kharboush the very popular annual summer youth camp at Abu-Qir, Alexandria, was not open to the blind. His response was immediate; he asked DAESN to nominate eight young visually-mpaired men and women to that year’s camp, which was a mere two weeks away, and he promised to arrange for special provision to accommodate them at such short notice. He moreover promised that young people with special needs would have a place in every future youth camp.
The group of eight went to the camp and had the time of their lives, taking part in every activity going. More importantly, however, they integrated very well with the other young people, who were so impressed with them that they insisted the camp would not be the end of their new friendship.
The outcome was that the needs and interests of the young people with special needs were included in the State’s general policy for youth.
Open and understanding
Dr Kharboush is an enlightened university professor. He embraces the ambitions, opinions and criticism of young people with exemplary broadmindedness and understanding. He is a man of action rather than words.
“We should inspire our young people to do their best. We should not dictate to them what they should do,” Dr Kharboush told Watani in a special interview about the role of the NYC in planning a brighter future for Egypt. For six years Dr Kharboush was the consultant of the youth minister before being assigned as head of the NYC, a post he currently holds.
Watani began by asking him about the opportunities for the visually impaired in the State-operated youth centres.
“In 2007, when I visited the technology fair along with the ministers of both education and international cooperation, we attended a presentation of some computer software that was especially designed for the visually impaired and that could be installed on any regular PC,” Dr Kharboush said. “We were so impressed by this software that we considered purchasing it for use inside youth centres and State departments which could employ visually impaired. Dr Fayza Abul-Naga, the minister of international cooperation, actually succeeded in securing a grant for NYC especially for this purpose. So we bought 1,200 pieces of the software and dispatched them to several youth centres.
“In cooperation with DAESN, we recruited 30 well-trained young men and women to train the largest number of visually-impaired people to use computers.”
Previously, Dr Kharboush said, the only place for special-needs persons in youth centres was in sporting activities. For example, there was a football team of young men with hearing disabilities. “We offered them as much moral support as we could,” he said.
Two councils better than one
Watani asked Dr Kharboush about the National Youth Council, its history, foundation and its relation with the National Sports Council and the Ministry of Youth.
“The NYC was founded in 2005 with me as its head. But its history goes back to 1973 when the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports was established. Later, in 1999, this was renamed the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
“Titles are not the key point; in fact they mean nothing in the process of developing the future of youth,” Dr Kharboush said.
He explained that the NYC most definitely benefited from its separation from sports, considering that separate budgets were now allocated for each of them. This ensured better achievement of the NYC’s plans towards developing youth on all levels. Dr Kharboush pointed out that back when the two departments were joined in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and shared the same budget, the funds were often allocated according to public needs and demands—which in most cases meant sports, and most especially football. The youth department with its cultural, political, social and entertainment divisions never took its rightful share of the joint budget.
Today, he said, ‘youth cities’ have been established in municipalities including Alexandria, Port Said, Damietta, al-Arish and Hurghada, while one is currently under construction in Sharm al-Sheikh and another in Aswan, not forgetting the international Youth City in Luxor.
“Previously, most of these youth cities were summer beach camps only open to men, because they were not at all women-friendly,” Dr Kharboush said. “Today they have been developed to accommodate both genders, and are open all year round. Visitors can find comfortable accommodation and can benefit from the various facilities available: computers, libraries, swimming pools and billiard halls. There are also vast green areas and conference halls.”
New centres
“The NYC has also set up a number of civil education and leadership training centres which offer youth courses in languages, feasibility studies and project management,” Dr Kharboush added. “These centres are equipped with the latest technologies. They can be found in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and Suhag, and they have recently acquired the UNESCO accredited ICDL permit.” According to Dr Kharboush, five new centres are under construction and will open this year in Sharqiya, Beheira, Ismailiya, Fayoum and Daqahliya. “Our dream is to establish a centre for education and leadership training inside every one of Egypt’s governorates,” he said.
Since the NYC was established, 891 new youth centres have been set up in locations which had nothing beforehand. Dr Kharboush confirmed that most youth centres offered their services to young middle- and lower-class people free of charge or at subsidised prices.
Young leaders
Dr Kharboush has changed the usual system of only assigning leadership positions to the older generations. Believing that the young themselves are a better judge of their own needs and how to fulfill them, he has delegated social services graduates for management posts in several youth centres. The NYC aims to appoint young people as supervisors of the various units of the centres. To this end, Dr Kharboush focuses on coaching and training young leaders in different fields in order to enable them to hold key posts in the future. He told Watani that, within its campaign to educate young people on politics, the NYC printed and distributed 500,000 copies of the Constitution, in addition to copies of a political encyclopedia and human rights declarations.
“The youth centres in all governorates have youth groups specialising in music, singing, art or poetry. We organise annual competitions and publish various publications such as a series on Egyptian public figures.
“The NYC has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the World Francophone Youth Ministers Organisation, through which training courses were offered to nine applicants to enable them to found small projects. The nine applicants were also given grants ranging from EGP30,000 to 50,000. These young men and women were able to set up projects that suited the nature of the rural environment that they targeted. Our aim is to be able to repeat this experience, but fund it out of the State’s budget.”
Back to work
“Unfortunately, however, considering the State’s current economic situation, we cannot provide enough young people with job opportunities. All we can do is offer them extensive training and programmes to equip them for the job market. We also recruited them whenever we had a vacancy in one of our centres. Thirteen thousand young people are currently employed by our centres as managers or supervisors, and a further 1,000 who work in the youth cities. We also organise regular employment fairs in cooperation with special recruitment companies. The NYC is closely connected with the Social Fund, through which we solve any problems that face young people in the workplace.”
Dr Kharboush confirmed that the NYC understood that unemployment was a major current problem that NYC constantly tried to overcome. He mentioned an experience the NYC had with an organisation that trained young women for work as babysitters. “Following this experience, the NYC decided to offer more specialised training so as to broaden job opportunities.
Commenting on post-revolutionary Egypt, Dr Kharboush had this to say: “All the chaos, violence and rejection of State decisions that is going on nowadays threatens to destroy the State power. This is very serious, considering the prevalent poor public awareness. We should all be aware that we are slipping into an economic and social downturn that can only be confronted if everyone adopts a positive attitude by going back to work and letting the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces manage the country. Otherwise Egypt cannot survive.”