syrian refugees emergency needs assessment report cairo, … · 5 introduction, as a result of the...

Syrian Refugees Emergency Needs Assessment ReportCairo, February 2013

Masaken Othman, Mohammad Al Omar, 2012

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Table of Content

Table of Figures, maps and tables............................................................................................................3Acronyms.................................................................................................................................................4Introduction..............................................................................................................................................5List of Participants to the ENA................................................................................................................7Executive Summary.................................................................................................................................8Key Findings by Area.............................................................................................................................111.Masaken Othman.................................................................................................................................112 & 3 Faisal and Omraneya....................................................................................................................124. Obour..................................................................................................................................................13Recommendations..................................................................................................................................14General...................................................................................................................................................13Child protection......................................................................................................................................13Education...............................................................................................................................................14Health.....................................................................................................................................................15Non- food Items.....................................................................................................................................15External Capacity: Key Findings, Recommendations .........................................................................17Key Findings..........................................................................................................................................17Recommendations..................................................................................................................................17Methodology...........................................................................................................................................18The Emergency Needs Assessment Framework.....................................................................................19Sampling.................................................................................................................................................19Limitations..............................................................................................................................................20Findings of the Emergency Needs Assessment.......................................................................................21Demographic and other general information..........................................................................................22Housing, Rents, Basic Urban Services (BUS) and social networks within the settled areas.................24Self-reliance............................................................................................................................................26Protection................................................................................................................................................27Children’s psychological problems.........................................................................................................27Protection of young girls.........................................................................................................................28Parents’ concerns......................................................................................................................................31Coping Strategies.....................................................................................................................................31Entities/Organisations taking care of Syrian children............................................................................32Education................................................................................................................................................33The Syrian School and Study groups.....................................................................................................39Health Issues: Vaccination in Egypt, Cases of malnutrition and disease in adults and children............40Unavailability or Deficiencies in NFIs...................................................................................................42Appendices.............................................................................................................................................44

1. Terms of Reference2. The Emergency Needs Assessment List of Variables 3. Reading List of Documents for the Needs Assessment4. List of In-depth Interviews and minutes

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Figures

Figure1. The population pyramid of interviewed households................................................................22Figure2. Percentages of “Paid Rents” after eliminating those in Masaken Othman as all paid by a faith-basr org...................................................................................................................................................24Figure3. Percentages of “Paid Rents” when taking Masaken Othman into account..............................24Figure 4. Percentages of households with social Networks with other Syrians in the Area..................25Figure 5. Percentages of working adult men in each area......................................................................26Figure 6. Percentages of households who are registered as asylum seekers with UNHCR, the relief centre in the Syndicate of Medicine and in Faith-based organizations..................................................27Figure 7. Types of psycho-social problems reported in children...........................................................28Figure 8. Respondent hearing about child protection-related cases.......................................................29Figure 9. Listed coping strategies which have influence on Children....................................................31Figure 10. Percentages of School enrolment per area including new comers........................................34Figure 11. Difficulties reported as reasons behind not enrolling in schools...........................................36

Tables and Maps

Map 1. Regional Areas influenced by the conflict in Syria from the UNICEF Syria Crisis....................5Map 2. An initial distribution of the Syrian Refugees in Caro following the emergence of communities and not individual cases...........................................................................................................................6Map 3. The four selected areas of study for the Needs Assessment: Obour, Faisal, Omraneya and Ma-saken Othman...........................................................................................................................................6Map 4. Masaken Othman area and the nearby Beit al3ail on the fringes of Sitta October.....................11Map 5. Omraneya and Faisa in Giza governorate...................................................................................12Map 6. Obour map..................................................................................................................................13

Table 1. breakdown of participants of FGD ..........................................................................................18Table 2. Detailed demographic composition in the four areas...............................................................22

List of Figures, Maps and Tables

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ENA Emergency Needs AssessmentGCR Greater Cairo RegionMoFA Ministry of Foreign AffairsMoSA Ministry of Social AffairsNFI Non- Food ItemNGO Non- government OrganisationPSTIC Psycho- Social Training Institute for CairoSC Save the ChildrenRRP Regional Response PlanUNHCR United Nations High Commission for RefugeesWFP World Food ProgrammeWHO World Health Organisation

Acronyms

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Introduction,

As a result of the conflict in Syria, many commu-nities have been destroyed, and a large number of people have been forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Tur-key, Egypt and other countries. The countries immediately bordering Syria have absorbed the most Syrians escaping the war, and are said to be at ‘saturation point’, with around a million registered refugees and an unknown but assumed to be high number of unregistered incomers. Although Egypt does not share a border with Syria, it has received many Syrians in the last 12 months. Egypt’s relative proximity and lack of visa requirements has meant that many Syrians have made the journey either overland or by air in hopes of finding a relatively cheap place to live. The Egyptian government’s policy of facilitating access to health care and education for displaced Syrians, in addition to historical and political ties and trade networks between the two countries make Egypt a preferred destination for asylum seekers.

Groups of displaced Syrians are gathering in the Greater Cairo Region (GCR), the satellite cities such as 6th October and Al Rehab, and other cities in Lower Egypt: Alexandria, Damietta, and Ismailia. Syrians have also dispersed into Upper Egypt, the Sinai and the Red Sea cities (UNHCR, 2012). The choice of location is dependent on many factors, among which the availability of housing, social networks, employment opportunities and preference for urban rather than rural areas, figure strongly. The most recent data on registered Syrian asylum seekers in Egypt counted 38.416 Syrians (by April 22, 2013)1 registered with UNHCR, which makes the Syrians the largest registered community of asylum seekers in Egypt. The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs recorded 100,000 displaced Syrians seeking resi-dency in Egypt in February, 2013 (Quoted in the inter-agency meeting with MoFA) and estimates that a considerably larger number live unrecorded in Egypt.

Programmes responding to the needs of the Syrian refugees have been developed in the last year: international organi-sations led by UNHCR, Egyptian civil society and other organisations have been extremely active in this regard. The Egyptian government has maintained a hospitable policy vis- a- vis Syrian refugees, and most host communities have shown a lot of support. But the numbers of Syrians arriving are increasing as the fighting spreads across Syria, with daily influxes of new and more vulnerable refugees, and the current support capacity is unable to accommodate the on-going and emerging needs.

Save the Children is committed to contributing to the emergency response to the Syrian crisis, and given its long expe-rience and commitment to working with children, with a well- established programme of Child Protection in Egypt, it is poised to act. In partnership with the UNHCR, Save the Children already works with displaced Syrians in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. This document/ research is a result of a recent decision by Save the Children Egypt, to conduct an area- specific Rapid Assessment of the needs of Syrian refugees and asylum seekers. The objective of this Emergency Needs Assessment (ENA) was to: “Assess and identify the needs of Syrian refugees in Egypt using Save the Chil-dren’s Emergency Standard Operating Procedures as a guide. The assessment will inform an Emergency Response initiative that will respond to the needs of the Syrian refugees and their children.”

1 http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/country.php?id=8

Map 1. Regional Areas influenced by the conflict in Syria from the UNICEF Syria Crisis Report, www.unicef.org

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Map 2. An initial distribution of the Syrian Refugees in Cairo following the emergence of communities and not individual cases

Map 3. The four selected areas of study for the Needs Assessment: Obour, Faisal,

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Participants to the Assessment

Assessment design, training of assessment team, analysis and report writing

External Consultant: Rasha Arous

GIS, Mapping and initial analysis

GIS specialist and urban planner: Mohamed Abdul Aziz

Support Team,

Mohammad Al Omar: Data gathering and compilation

Mennat Allah Ismail Ahmad: from Resala Data gathering

Mona Ahmad Abdul Monem From Resala: Data gathering

Amira from Resala : Data Compilation

Mona Shalan: Initial Writing support

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Executive Summary

In the urban spheres of Cairo, investigating the needs of refugees who are dispersed over wide geographical areas is challenging. However, the Syrian refugees have started to form their own communities in some areas, and to clus-ter themselves around specific commonalities, often attracted by ‘pull’ factors such as extended family and kinship networks, ethnicity, and place of origin. In some areas, they are drawn to districts where local entities, mainly faith- based, provide support. The capacity of these entities to reach out to Syrian communities to offer support and basic services is dependent on many factors; one of which is the concentration of the Syrian population in particular places, and another is their relationships with international and locally engaged actors. In some areas, the Egyptian govern-ment, NGOs and other organisations besides the host community have developed initiatives which provided accom-modation, basic needs and other aid to the Syrian displaced groups. The Syrians themselves have started to establish their own local structures which are in need of institutional and financial nurturing. The increasing numbers of recent arrivals pose serious challenges to all engaged actors.

As shown in the demographic profile of Syrians in Egypt , the majority of displaced Syrians are in family groups, with 46% of the population being children under 18. In a comprehensive situation report on the Syrian crisis published in March 2013, entitled “Syria’s Children: A lost generation?”1 ,UNICEF researchers estimate that 1.84 million children have been affected by the crisis inside Syria and another 1 million have fled, either alone or with their families, to neighbouring countries.

In December last year, a Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP)2 was formulated to deal with the Syrian crisis, which includes all countries in the Middle East hosting displaced Syrians. The section on Egypt is objective and informative. The plan assesses the situation every six months, and develops an action plan, with various donors and actors allocated for sectoral response. Prior to this, the UNHCR, WFP and UNICEF conducted many needs assessments of the Syrian population in Egypt; the RRP3 collated these findings, and provided the evidence needed for forward planning. The RRP states that: Protection and other services will be provided to registered asylum seekers (education, health, winter-ization of accommodation, and vouchers for food items besides limited financial support to needy families). Psycho-social support from trained Syrian social workers covers registered as well as unregistered refugees and thus reaches a larger population of the Syrian community.

Considering the many areas of study that previous Needs Assessments by other agencies have already covered, Save the Children utilised the framework of the Emergency Needs Assessment (ENA) in order to gather in-depth informa-tion related to child protection, education and non- food items (NFIs). Moreover, it aimed to get a contextual under-standing of the various actors and their roles with the Syrian communities to identify the potential for partnerships and cooperation, and focus on areas where deficiencies are reported. To achieve that, an area-specific approach was used, targeting specific districts of urban Cairo where pockets of poor Syrians reside. The Emergency Needs Assessment, carried out in January/ February 2013, selected four areas of Syrian settlement: Masaken Othman, Omraneya, Faisal and Obour. The actual numbers of Syrian refugees in the areas of study are not precisely known, but initial estimates suggest that approximately 200 families live in Faisal, 300 in Omraneya, 120 in Masaken Othman and 600 families in Obour. (For details and findings per area, please see the section below). The researchers were able to interview 227 residents of these areas to build up a fairly detailed picture of the refugees’ situation.

Masaken Othman is a poor suburban area that have developed recently and is characterised by being inhabited by Egyptians who have moved or been moved from elsewhere. Partly due to its recently arrived or transient population and that it is inconviniently fart from residential and commercial activities, it is among the most disadvantaged and under-resourced districts of the city. Obour is a suburban new town with more activities and mixed housing (public and private). Yet, the previous needs assessments reported more vulnerable Syrian families in it. Faisal and Omraneya are informal settlements where Syrians live next to Cairo’s urban poor. For these reasons, rents in these areas are relatively low. Refugees living in areas like this tend to have heightened stress levels, as they are competing with poor local residents for scarce resources and meagre services, and they are vulnerable to aggression, violence and exploita-

1 UNICEF March 2013 see www.unicef.org/infobycountry/files/Syria_2yr_Report.pdf2 RRP, UNHCR 2012 see http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/uploads/SyriaRRP.pd3 RRP 19.12.12

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tion. (UN HABITAT, 2013)4.

It was noted that Egyptian residents of the four areas selected for the study had very similar needs for assistance and development initiatives as the refugees, as will be discussed below. The local residents’ groups and the Egyptian government already struggle to provide adequate services and facilities for residents and are severely stretched by the influx of refugees in these very disadvantaged communities. Save the Children is interested in responding to some of these needs and should try to ensure that any assistance they provide is equally accessible to residents as well as refugees, to minimise the resentment against the incomers. Save the Children areas of expertise include protection, education and NFI issues , which are identified gaps in services already being provided for Syrian refugees, and so will address these, developing project plans in an area-specific manner. The main findings as per area and sectors are in the sections below.

Willingness to respond to the researchers’ questions varied among the different groups interviewed. In Masaken Oth-man, respondents were outspoken, and talked openly about their problems, while in Omraneya, they were hesitant and reluctant to provide details about themselves. They were obviously fearful that the information might be leaked to other or official bodies. It is assumed that the majority of Syrians arriving in Egypt are anti-regime, but political affili-ation was not inquired into, and it is very likely that supporters of the Assad regime and neutral groups are also present in significant numbers, though they are less visible, scattered and therefore seem less able to receive assistance.

The key findings of the research are summarised below and elaborated in the main body of the report.

Many of the displaced Syrians, especially the most recent arrivals, have a feeling of temporariness and have taken some time to construct an identity as a refugee. A sense of unreality may prevent them from accessing available services. This negatively affects their social integration, medium- term livelihood concerns and the educational status of their children.

Restricted freedom of movement, either from fear, unfamiliarity with the area or parental over-protec-tion, has been extensively reported among the interviewed households, especially among children, young girls and women and has been listed among the causes of domestic violence and feelings of isolation and exclusion.

Housing has a major influence on people’s quality of life, feelings of security and opportunities for employment and education. Very few refugees reported a stable living situation; most are facing poor quality accommodation, rising rents, and dwindling financial resources. A majority of respondents identified accommo-dation expenses as a main source of stress. As mentioned, the lowest rents are to be found in the areas furthest from the city centre, and this is where organisations that can offer free accommodation to recently arrived Syr-ians have rented blocks of flats for their use. As these are not desirable places to live, there is a high turn-over of residents, and even the poorest Syrian families move out as soon as they have an opportunity to do so. Many cases of overcrowded apartments, with several generations and extended family members sharing a residence have been reported.

Protection concerns are numerous and challenging; especially for women, young girls, vulnerable people and children. Among these concerns are the lack of official documentation and residency issues which were particularly noticeable in Omraneya with widespread ignorance of the consequences of not formalizing their presence in Egypt. Other protection concerns include Sexual and Gender Based Violence with reports of harassment against girls and women. Incidences of street violence and theft were repeatedly mentioned. Some security concerns reflect the current political instability and social tensions of Cairo/ Egypt; others are related to the general poverty and lawlessness that prevail in certain neighbourhoods; namely Masaken Othman and the informal settlements where gangs, thugs and drug dealers are thought to congregate.

The dependency ratio (# of dependents: income earner) is high in general, yet varies markedly from

4 A conference presentation on urban displacement by UN HABITAT, Copenhagen 2013

Key Findings

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one area to another. Access to employment opportunities is reported to be difficult and most jobs are obtained through the informal sector. The most disadvantaged groups in regards to unemployment reside in Masaken Othman, as transportation costs for any job seeker are high. In Omraneya, extreme dependency on charity and involvement in begging is reported. Obour reports the highest level of employment among adult men. Most of the women in the interviewed households were housewives, though some had higher levels of education or skills. Only a few initiatives have started to look at the issue of women’s employment. Women have limited ac-cess to funds that would create and support income generation activities from within their homes such as cater-ing, embroidery work, etc. In addition, the men showed some conservatism in regards to allowing their women work outside their homes. For the Syrian women, working as domestic workers is not yet an option as per the Sudanese and other refugee communities in Cairo.

A large proportion of children suffer from psycho-social problems, especially post- traumatic stress disorder, and their needs in this regard are hardly met as little systemized care is provided in Egypt as a whole, let alone the areas of study. Extreme cases reaching depression level have been reported and a high level of parents’ interest to help their children overcome their distress has also been reported. Cases of separated fami-lies due to the father’s death or disappearance were found, but referrals of these cases to specific tracing entities have not been tracked.

Refugee children in the targeted areas have been subject to exploitation, especially in low- paid and heavy manual work for boys and in unwelcome marriage proposals and harassment for young girls. The issue of marriage proposals to young refugee girls is quite complex and sensitive, and researchers were unable to get a full understanding of the situation, or how prevalent it was. However, the findings show that this issue is perceived negatively by many young girls and other segments of the Syrian community.

Refugee children have experienced considerable disruptions to their education, both within Syria and during their subsequent displacement to Egypt. Difficulties in educational enrolment, integration and attainment were reported. The reported needs are diverse as the children in the survey sample come from different eco-nomic and social levels and backgrounds. Many children are not enrolled in schools in Egypt due to a multitude of factors. Some of them dropped out of school before coming to Egypt, and others had fallen behind in their studies with long periods of absence due to insecurity, closure of their schools or displacement from their home community. They have poor educational support capacities within their homes. Very little remedial education is provided. The experiences of the Syrian community school/study groups in Sixth October district have not been 100% positive, as it lacks planning and management capabilities, and is not yet well- synchronised to the Egyp-tian system. There is, however, a widely shared desire among parents and children, for the children to be able to continue their education.

Health problems among children and adults add stresses and shocks on livelihoods and psycho-social well-being in addition to its physical effects. Cases of children with malnutrition, development difficulties and undiagnosed complaints were reported. Families do not have their health records from Syria with them, and infants had missed essential vaccinations. Children in Masaken Othman have serious health concerns and their access to health services is difficult due to the need for and cost of transport to the nearest public health unit. Poor health among adults is common in the study areas and access to medication and health support were also high on the list of parents’ concerns.

The lack of specific non- food items was reported in varying levels in the studied areas. On the whole, adequate clothing and shoes were top of the list, especially among children, as few families had been able to carry clothes with them when they left Syria. Toiletries, soap and feminine hygiene products, bedding, books and school supplies, cutlery and cooking equipment, laundry detergent, and bottled gas, for cooking and heating water, were all reported as the most needed and unaffordable items.

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1 Key Findings by Area: Masaken Othman

Masaken Othman: a remote and exclusionary housing project on the fringes of Sixth October satellite city.

Housing, in the form of basically furnished flats, is provided to refugees for free by a faith-based organisation. The accommodation is adequate but the location is remote and lack of transportation is a critical aspect. All respondent households here said that isolation, difficulties of reaching schools, jobs, clinics etc. and staying connected with other Syrian communities were major challenges faced by residents. Only one father reported having a job, and child labour was also reported.

Security concerns are high in Masaken Othman with the general image of the area being somewhere that displaced groups from “informal settlement areas” or homes damaged by landslides etc. in Cairo are sent. Fears of interaction were mentioned as refugees had heard that the area is mostly inhabited by drug dealers and gangs. Nonetheless, people reported maintaining relatively good relationships with their Egyptian neighbours and younger children were able to play outdoors.

This area has the highest proportion (60%) of children under 16 among the refugee households. Concerns about chil-dren’s education were high in this area, with many drop- outs, interrupted schooling before leaving Syria, low capac-ity of parents to support home learning, compounded with transport problems to the nearest primary and secondary schools. Governmental schools in Masaken Othman are already over-crowded, and the teaching of poor quality.

Health and psycho-social needs were extensively reported. Recent vaccination campaigns had not reached this area. Eight Syrian children in the interviewed families had Hepatitis A and one of them who had earlier kidney problems had died. Clothing and bottled gas for cooking and heating water were among the most needed Non- Food Items.

Support to the area is provided by the Faith-based organisation and by UNHCR (50% of refugees living here were reg-istered with UNHCR)

Masaken Othman

Beith el 3ailah

Map 4. Masaken Othman area and the nearby Beit al3ail on the fringes of sitta october

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Omraneya and Faisal are informal settlement areas built on agriculture land, in Giza governorate and can be reached by Metro.

Financially- better off families live in the Arabi Towers area of Faisal, and poorer groups in inner parts of the area. Housing is mostly rented. Population density and overcrowding were major urban problems and made the refugees, especially those from rural areas of Syria, wary about being in the streets. Harassment and street violence were report-ed by refugees and security issues were also highlighted. The demographic composition of the Syrian community here includes more youth, some of whom are university students who showed an interest in contributing to development ef-forts being made for both Faisal and Omraneya. A sense of self- reliance was found to be stronger in this area, as there was a relatively high number of working adult males, many of whom had been able to establish small businesses.

Only 29% of Syrians in these two areas are registered with the UNHCR, and their residency status was accepted once their children were in school. Otherwise, it was neglected and not thought to be useful. Although this area shows better accessibility to education than other areas, the percentage of children enrolled in school is still not very high, and par-ents reported a long list of educational support needs. As in other areas, children have serious psycho-social problems and have extra reported violence in schools with their Egyptian peers.Omraneya shows an interesting case of people cluster-ing themselves around ethnicity. The Syrians in this area mostly come from an Arab Turkmen origin. Very few humanitarian organisations work here, although there are between 300 to 500 families. Protection measures are highly required as this group has inte-grated even less than Syrians of the same economic and social level elsewhere in Cairo. Most do not have Arabic as their mother-tongue. Only 10% of this community group are registered with UN-HCR. Many families live together and share the rent, with possibly donors and charities also contributing. Dependency ratios are high with little employment available.Fewer psycho-social needs were reported here, yet the reported ones were complex. Few children are registered in schools, although there are spaces in the local schools. Children face problems because of the language. There are many long-term drop-out students, so remedial education would be necessary for them. Mothers did not know or could not remember which vaccinations their children had had, and none had been vaccinated since they came to Egypt. Agencies working in the area report high numbers of children working (running errands, domestic work) and begging. Lack of shoes and clothing, laundry soap, toiletries, school supplies, kitchen utensils and bottled gas were reported in both areas. A few faith-based organisations, based in or near an iconic mosques1 and individual donors are supporting people in both areas. An Egyptian organisation called Resala2 , is active in Faisal.

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Faisal

Omraneya

2 & 3 Faisal and Omraneya

Map 5. Omraneya and Faisa in Giza governorate

1 Iconic is used here in the sense that the mosque is both a well- known landmark, and famous for the charity that it dispenses to the poor. Syr-ians are often directed to go there immediately upon arrival in Egypt, and have tended to settle in the area2 Resala is a non-profit organization with 54 branches around Egypt. Resala is powered by over 100,000 volunteers, providing various activities aimed at helping the Egyptian community. These activities include: caring for orphans, helping the blind, the deaf, children with special needs, blood donation, poverty alleviation, and literacy training.

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Obour is a satellite city on the edge of Cairo with a mix of housing types. The Syrians have tended to move into public housing here, if they can find it, as it is cheaper than privately-owned housing. Rents in Obour are relatively low. The most distinct asset of Obour is the well-organized Syrian community structure which facilitates many aspects of refugee life (emergency accommodation for new arrivals, job placements etc.). Souria Al Ghad Organisation, a Syrian NGO has a branch in Obour.

Obour has the highest percentage of 3 generations in one household, and is similar to Omraneya in the percentage of female-headed households.

Child protection issues are critical as the area reports the highest levels of psycho-social problems among Syrian children. Cases of working children were alarmingly high especially as street vendors. School drop- outs were high, as was non-enrolment in schools. Access to schools was reported as difficult as some schools were far from Obour and transportation is costly.

Syrians in Obour reported the highest level of registering with the UNHCR with 62% of respondent households having registered on arrival. They showed better mobility among men and children, yet still limited among women and young girls. Deficiency in vaccinations among children was reported. Children with malnutrition, anemia and other health problems were moderately present. Many children reported skin allergies and respiratory system infections. Access to health services has been reported as difficult to access and expensive, as there are no public health units in the immediate area.

As elsewhere, lack of adequate clothing and shoes, shampoo, soap and toiletries, and school supplies were reported.

4. Obour

Map 6. Obour map

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General

• The need for outreach services, counselling and psycho-social support are high across all four areas and should form the basis of SC’s intervention.

• Local NGOs, faith- based organisations, other locally involved community development associations and influential local actors would be key partners for reaching the Syrian community.

• Outreach strategies should identify community nodes, such as the Housari Park in Sixth October as starting points for programmes, and find out other places or events for gatherings of Syrians which are occasionally organized within their own communities.

• Following to the outreach phase, community maps should be developed in participation with the local com munity (both Egyptian and Syrian) providing guidance on the neighbourhood, facilities and services available and ways to navigate the system. The local education administration, health centres (especially for vaccina tions) and other important centres and landmarks should be identified and highlighted.

• Establish an information desk/ telephone line? and a referral system for people with documentation problems and residency issues to contact the appropriate agencies/organisations which can provide support in that re gard.

• Develop a vulnerability map with community leaders and other members identifying families with special cases, extreme poverty and needy children.

• Volunteerism and community action could be challenging for some Syrian youth and adolescents as their mobility is limited due to many reasons (such as protective attitudes of parents). SC could invite youth who want to contribute to their community development and have better positions to do so (such as the newly established Syrian University Students’ Coalition) and support them.

Child protection

• Establish child friendly spaces with family counsellors and other facilities (educational, recreational, enter tainment, etc.). The locations should take into account the density of population of Syrian communities, as well as accessibility to people from nearby areas (such as Housari Park in Sixth October), proxim ity to schools where Syrian children are enrolled, and the landmarks or centres where Syrians are assisted or receive services.

• Introduce child protection policies to local agencies and other groups working with children, provide training on child protection issues and policies, and provide institutional and capacity development support for them.

• Provide child protection training to volunteers and local community actors, and develop capacities of already existing community centres (such as Tadamoun) regarding such activities.

• Establish a network of communication for child protection purposes, and a referral system for cases of early marriages, reported exploitations and other cases. The network could include national agencies (such as the National Centre for Women’s Rights) and other international and local organisations (such as UNICEF, Re sala, etc.)

• Introduce regular psycho -social and health monitoring of children in schools in the four studied areas and ar range follow-up home visits if children drop out or fail to thrive. This could be done through a mobile team of trained psycho-social workers (Egyptians and Syrians). Extending the already existing teams such as the PSTIC one is recommended.

Recommendations

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• Establish Early Childhood Development Centres in areas of high concentrations of children under 6 in areas where these centres do not exist (such as in Masaken Othman), and develop and extend capacities of the al ready existing Egyptian centres in other areas to welcome Syrian children.

• Develop culturally sensitive measures and programmes which meet the various needs of adolescent girls and empower them.

• Establish a referral system in each area for psycho-social needs that require specialized support.

Education

• Design campaigns to raise awareness on school enrolment procedures supported by community maps on loca tions of schools, administration and other related entities.

• Establish transitional welcoming schools for newly arriving groups in order to compensate for the time spent in settling down and reinforce children’s adaptation capacities.

• Provide educational and managerial support to community schools (such as the one established in Sixth Octo ber).

• Develop quality control measures for the provided educational services, and look for ways to align differences between the Syrian and Egyptian educational systems.

• Remedial/Informal education: provide decentralized community education support groups and illiteracy eradi cation programmes. Where possible, extend any local existing Egyptian or Syrian programmes.

• Develop training programmes for teachers, actors and volunteers engaged in education programmes on active learning skills and other methods.

• Engage educated parents, Syrian youth and other community groups to participate in educational support pro grammes.

• Improve the educational support capacities of parents who can and want to support their children at home.

• For the high rate of school drop-outs from Syria in Omraneya, investigate the provision of illiteracy eradica tion programmes, vocational training and part-time schooling/ on-the-job training for working children.

• Provide support for transportation where necessary for students to reach schools.

• Develop local government schools’ capacities.

• Create summer schools including recreational activities, remedial lessons and helping children who have learning difficulties.

• Reinforce the Egyptian volunteers’ initiatives to help children with accent and language difficulties,

Health

• Provide awareness- raising sessions for mothers on health issues, vaccinations, early childhood development, healthy nutrition and other aspects.

• Set a referral system in place to organisations and local actors working on health issues and links to health and family planning services providers.

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Non- food Items

• Provide / distribute Non- food items in the areas which are not reached by other programmes and partners.

• Contact local charity organisations/actors/support groups who have track records on the supply of these items, and who also have access to these families.

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External Capacity: Key Findings, Recommendations

Key Findings

- Many initiatives have been started to facilitate job placements, housing supply and educational and health sup-port to the Syrians. Some of them are attributed to faith- based organisations, others are devised by host com-munities, local Egyptian NGOs and civil society activism. There are also newly established Syrian structures besides the assistance provided by UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and the implementing and operational partners (which is not the focus of SC’s work here).

- Data bases comprising lists of donors, suppliers of goods or services, host families for new arrivals, and poten-tial employers have been set up by many organisations. There are also facebook pages designed to facilitate ac-tivities and coordination of the displaced Syrian community. Some Syrians, mainly youth or university students, have access to the internet and register in these sites, but most Syrians do not.

- Some of these initiatives cooperate closely and have made efforts to establish coordination units among them-selves, such as the Syndicate of Medicine, Souria Al Ghad Organisation and Beit Al 3ailah Charity Organisation (see minutes of meetings). However, on the ground, these coordination efforts are poorly managed.

- Agencies who have been providing supplies to the Syrians reported a shortage of resources and inability to cope with the increasing numbers registering with them. The Syndicate of Medicine reported the same dramatic increase in the number of registered families with them in the last 3 months, as did UNHCR.

- Local level Syrian structures, such as the Obour office of Souria al Ghad, Zouhour el Sham, Rabitat al Lajeen al Souryien, Al Bait al Souri, The Syrian Humanitarian support group, etc., and city level ones (Souria al Ghad, Rabitat al Toulab al Soureen, Inmaa, Tansee2yat Masr, etc...) have started to emerge in Cairo. However, most of them are combining development and charity work and lack organisational structures, good management and planning. Souria Al Ghad specifically seems to have access to a large Syrian community and to have good international connections besides being registered as an NGO in Egypt since February 2013.

Recommendations

• Partnership Building: In each of the explored aspects of the ENA, there are possibilities of building partner-ships with other agencies when starting to develop action plans. Partnerships with UN agencies and their imple-menting and operational partners are attainable through the ongoing inter-agency and sector-specific meetings and the working groups . Nonetheless, partnering with community-based, governmental organisations and other civil society and developmental actors should be considered as well, to extend their capacities and develop their work. This option needs more investigation.

• Encourage and support volunteerism and community participation within the Syrian community by develop-ing partnerships between organisations and volunteers, to support and capacity build Syrian groups. Organisa-tions that have experience in that regard are Resala, Multaka Al Irtibat, Tadamoun Community Centre etc.

• Consider host communities in each intervention as partners as well as beneficiaries and build on their strengths and any existing experience in each of the targeted areas.

• Address capacity building of counterparts; empower leadership and support institutional capacity and devel-opment, support local education initiatives run by local NGOs, the Tadamoun Syrian community centre and other centres in social outreach, child protection, education and women’s engagement.

• Support local structures and initiatives in mapping vulnerable groups and in assessing their conditions and in developing mechanisms of community participation.

18

The Emergency Needs Assessment used in-depth semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and a household survey with 41 interviewed households to obtain the information. Desk research was done on other SC interventions, and existing initiatives.

1. In- Depth Interviews: Twenty two interviews and meetings were conducted with different individu-als in order to gain a contextual understanding of who is doing what and how. See Appendix 1 for interview minutes and the findings in the external capacity section.

2. Focus Group Discussions: Four focus group discussions have been held as shown below:

- With mothers of school children in Sixth October,

- With Teachers of Nasayem el Ganna School,

- With a group of adolescent girls and boys in Al Mustakbal School in Beit el 3aila in Sixth October,

- With a group of children and the Egyptian Activists who work with them.

Focus groupNum-ber of

attendees

Age groups of Attendees Details

Mothers of School Children

13 29-48 all fe-males

2 can read and write, 2 primary education, 4 el-ementary, 3 secondary and 2 university,

20 children of school age; 2 drop-outs, 1 working child and one married girl of 18 years. Most of them are in Syrian school and others in Egyptian governmental schools.

Teachers in the Syrian School

10 NA 2 males 8 females Primary level, trained and paid

Adolescents in Beit al 3aliah

6 11-16 5 female and 1 male These are school students in Al Mustakbal school in Beit al 3aila

Children and Su-pervising staff

10 3-12 7 males 3 females, Syrian children who have activities every Saturday with a group of Egyptian Volunteers in the Children’s park in Nasr City

Table1. breakdown of participants of FGD

3. A household survey covering the four areas has been conducted with 41 questionnaires: (12 in Ma-saken Othman, 9 in Omraneya, 7 in Faisal and 13 in Obour).

4. Desk research to learn from earlier assessments and make possible comparisons,

-UNHCR Rapid Needs Assessment of 183 families in Cairo October 2012

-UNHCR Rapid Needs Assessment of 137 families in Alexandria October 2012

-UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP Joint Needs Assessment to the Syrians in November 2012

Methodology,

19

Education

Emotional and behavioural de-velopment

Ensuring safety

Basic CareHealth

Identity

Family and social relationships

Social Presentation

Emotional warmth

Stimulation

Guidance and boundaries

StabilitySelfcare skills

Community

resources

Family›s social

integration

IncomeEmploymentHousingW

ider FamilyFamily history and

functioning

FAMILY AND ENVIRONMENT AL FACTORS

PARENTING CAPACITY

CHIL

D›S

DEVE

LOPM

ENTA

L NE

EDS

CHILD PROTECTION

AND WELFARE PROMOTION

The Design of the Emergency Needs Assessment for Syrians has benefited from the General Frame-work for the Assessment of Children and their Families 1as a systematic basis for collecting and analysing information (figure above). It has looked closely at the aspects that form the top of the pyramid and included general information on other aspects.

It has gone in depth into areas of Child protection, Education and Non Food Items, and gathered data about the following:

- Specific protection issues,

- Socio-economic conditions of the families (accommodation, education, social relations, live lihoods, housing and services)

- A few health indicators (see list of indicators in the Appendix)

1 Source: http://www.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/repository/adoption/section05.asp

The Emergency Needs Assessment Framework

20

Sampling

The needs assessment has targeted specific geographical areas in order to investigate on an area-specific level. Sampling of refugees in urban settings is not easy. To begin with, it is quite difficult to estimate the to-tal population in these new and informal settlements. But it is public knowledge that there are concentrations of the Syrian communities in these areas, partly because accommodation is available and tends to be cheaper than in older and well- established suburbs.

Statistically, the multi-stage cluster sampling method was followed which is not usually recommended for organisational research, yet it has proved to be a useful method when there is an unknown but large target population, in which certain segments were of particular interest, as was the case in Cairo. Clusters of the city were selected and then families with children were targeted. Those were chosen randomly in these spe-cific clusters, for example, by knocking on doors in Masaken Othman to interview households with children.

The total number of questionnaires was 41; distributed as follows: 12 in Masaken Othman, 9 in Omraneya, 7 in Faisal and 13 in Obour.

Limitations

Identifying and selecting Syrian communities, carrying out door- to- door enquiries and commuting between the different areas have been challenging for the research team, and required a time extension for the as-signment. Another obstacle was that many of the trained female data collectors were unable to visit isolated areas such as Masaken Othman and Obour, which meant data collecting teams had to be reconfigured. Yet, the assignment was conducted in 17 working days which is a relatively short time in which to make a com-prehensive study that would allow for generalised outcomes.

Given these limitations, the area-specific Rapid Assessment was the most appropriate method to use.

There was also an issue about the reluctance of some respondents, particularly in Omraneya, to provide much personal information, which might influence the credibility/ validity of the information that they did supply.

As SC collected data on specifics geographical areas as well as particular aspects of the refugees’ situation, there is little data available from other agencies or group to correlate or compare.

These drawbacks notwithstanding, the data collectors feel reasonably confident that they were able to cap-ture a realistic picture of the situation of some of the most vulnerable Syrian households living in peri-urban areas of Cairo.

21

Findings of the Emergency Needs Assessment

22

Survey respondents were asked a number of basic demographic questions related to the profile of the re-spondent, household composition, length of stay in Egypt and mode of travel to Egypt. The total number of people interviewed is 227 individuals (114 females and 113 males which makes a percentage of 50.2% females and 49.8% males).

Average household size

In all areas, the average household size was 5.54 persons which is slightly higher than the national average household in Syria as reported in 20041 as 5.50 per household. Omraneya has the biggest average household size with 6.2 people per household. Other areas have averages of 5 in Othman, 5 in Faisal and 5.84 in Obour. Some people were living together with extended family members and others sharing apartments with unre-lated people. Two households were found with two wives (polygamous); one in Omraneya and another in Obour.

Age Males Females All PercentageLess than 1 0 4 4 1.8 %

1-5 16 21 37 16.3%6-10 22 17 39 17.2%11-18 28 22 50 22.0%19-25 9 12 21 9.3%26-60 37 34 71 31.3%

More than 60 1 4 5 2.2%113 114 227

49.78 % 50.22 %

1 Syrian National Centre for Statistics, available at: www.cbssyr.org/studies/st13.pdf

Figure1. The population pyramid of interviewed households

Table 2. Detailed demographic composition in the four areas

Demographic and other general information

23

The total number of Children aged (0 to 18) years in the survey sample was 130 which makes 57.3% in all areas. (This percentage is taken only of families which have children and not the whole population.) The total number of children of school age is 89 children with a percentage of 39.2%.

Female Headed Households

Few cases with female-headed households were found. These are very vulnerable households with extra reported distress due to the absence of the father. In one of them in Omraneya, a 16- year boy was consid-ered as the support person for the family, and other Syrians in the neighbourhood referred to him as the head of the household. In female headed households, the fathers were either dead or disappeared with no further trace.

There were two female headed households in Omraneya, none in Othman, one in Faisal (including one where a brother- in- law shares the accommodation) and two in Obour.

Number of generations in the household

In Obour, the largest number of households with three generations was reported. Five out of the thirteen households interviewed (38%) reported having older family members residing with them.

In other areas; percentages ranged from 17% in Othman, 22% in Omraneya and 28% in Faisal.

More than one family sharing accommodation

Questionnaires’ answers show a large number of two families sharing one apartment in Omraneya and Obour, accounting for 45% of interviewed households. In Obour, one case of three families sharing the same apartment was reported. The percentages were found to be less in both Othman and Faisal with 17% and 15% respectively.

Mode of travel and length of stay in Egypt

The most common mode of travel to Egypt was by air from Lebanon and Syria. Recently arriving groups in Omraneya reported coming by ferry from Iskenderun in Turkey to Port Said.

The length of stay in Cairo was between 2 weeks and 13 months in Obour, Othman and Faisal. Respondents in Omraneya reported 6 months as the longest period of stay among interviewees.

24

Shelter is a major concern for Refugees. The survey findings of UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP corroborated Shelter is a major concern for refugees. The survey findings of UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP corroborated the fact that the majority of Syrian refugees in Egypt are currently renting accommodation for their families, while in certain locations—namely Masaken Othman— apartments are provided for free through a faith-based organisation. Therefore, data on the aspect of shelter are not to be generalized.

The targeted areas are different in their urban forms ranging from informal areas (Omraneya and Faisal) to isolated housing developments such as Masaken Othman. Obour represents a mix of public and private housing accommodation. Interviews with agencies in Obour showed a big difference in rents between public and private. While the public housing is rented for between 300-800 L.E. per month for non-furnished flats, privately owned housing is one and a half or twice that amount . A 40 % rent increase in the rental market has been reported in Obour in the last 8 months. The following figure shows the reported rents after elimi-nating the ones of Masaken Othman.

Figure2. Percentages of “Paid Rents” after eliminating those in Masaken Othman as all paid by a faith-base Org.

Figure3. Percentages of “Paid Rents” when taking Masaken Othman into account

Housing, Rents, Basic Urban Services (BUS) and social networks within the set-tled area

UNHCR Needs Assessment conducted for 183 Syrian Families revealed the results to the rights as per housing expenditure. The major difference found compared to the study areas is in the lower-values paid rents as the percentages in our case are much higher. This could be attributed partially to the nature of the areas of study as poorer than others.? UNHCR- Needs Assessment of 183 families 2012

25

Families sharing accommodation usually shared the rent, or the rent was subsidised or covered by a charity or faith-based organisation especially in Omraneya. Masaken Othman reported a high residential mobility with people to other areas if and when they could obtain other (better) accommodation either through free of charge channels or other avenues. They reported problems in availability of potable water and poor mainte-nance for sanitation facilities. Transportation was also reported as a major problem with only tuktuks con-necting the area with Sixth October till early evening.

Social Networks in the settled areas

Most of the respondents (68%) have social networks with other Syrians living in the same area. In Masaken Othman, it was reported that 75% of respondent households have family networks, or same city of origin ac-quaintances in the same area, 67% in Omraneya and 85% in Faisal. The fewest networks reported with other Syrians was in Obour with only 45% of respondent households socialising with other Syrians living nearby, which reflects the nature of Obour as a large town with mixed types of accommodation.

Relationships to Egyptian Neighbours,

Upon asking respondent households about their relationships with their Egyptian neighbours, the answers were varied, based on their personal experiences. Yet, in general, most said that they maintain good relation-ships, some said that they avoid interaction and have no direct connections apart from de facto economic relationships, and a few reported cases of being exploited by Egyptians. The only area which shows signifi-cantly different findings from this norm is Omraneya as respondents there reported much less interaction with Egyptians than elsewhere. This corresponds to what the Egyptian agencies working with Syrians in Omraneya have also reported, and may be due to the linguistic differences of the Syrians of Turkmen origin.

The data collectors also selected a few Egyptian families in each area to ask about this issue. Answers from the Egyptian side showed that they welcome and want to support the Syrians and interact with them. Yet, they reported conservatism and limited response from the Syrian side in some cases. In Masaken Othman, many Egyptians felt resentful about the aid received by the Syrians only, when they themselves had the same needs and problems.

Figure 4. Percentages of households with social Networks with other Syrians in the Area

75

67

85

45

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Othman Omraneya Faisal Obour

26

Self-reliance

Most of the interviewed households raised the issue of the depletion of their resources over time and the difficulties they encountered finding work. For them, jobs in Egypt were not only difficult to access, but also paid much less than similar jobs in Syria. Those living in isolated areas reported that salaries were not high enough to cover the costs of transportation to the work site. On the other hand, some agencies working with the Syrian community reported a general reluctance from the Syrian side to get jobs, i.e. a preference for to-tal reliance on charity to cover the expenses of their displacement. Syrians begging in front of mosques after Friday prayers and in other places and times have been widely observed.

Wealthier Syrians who have access to capital, and possibly prior business contacts in Egypt, are investing in different types of businesses -factories have been established in Obour and 10th of Ramadan, and food pro-duction/ catering businesses and ready-made garment shops have started to appear in different places around Cairo. The types of jobs available for most of the displaced in these poor and disadvantaged areas are in the informal sector- construction, services, cleaning, and they are in competition with thousands of Egyptian day labourers. Those who do not have access to capital and who form the biggest proportion of the Syrian com-munity are facing financial insecurity, lack of access to cash, inability to travel or move and other poverty- related problems.

In the surveyed areas, opportunities for employment and self-reliance were few, and those who were work-ing (29% of all respondent households) had jobs that were only temporary. These were either day labour-ers, or employed in factories besides skilled workers (a tailor, a construction worker, a cashier, a salesman, a journalist and a driver). Only one respondent had established his own business- a clothing shop in Faisal. The area which has the lowest employment rate for Syrians is Masaken Othman with only one employed adult man, though a number of children living there work.

43

33

8

38

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Faisal Omraneya Othman Obour

Figure 5. Percentages of working adult men in each area

In comparison, in the Needs Assessment of UNHCR for 137 families in Alexandria, 90% of the interviewed households had no incomes. While in Damietta, many adult male family members reported working but the working conditions are difficult as they work in furniture manufacturing in Old Damietta. They work from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and earn between 800 to 1000 L.E per month. Young children work in restaurants and earn 70 to 100 L.E per week. Many people in the different areas studied said that they were dependent on their savings and that these savings were almost depleted. All said that men find it very difficult to get jobs yet a high percentage reported willingness to work in the Needs Assessment of 183 families in Cairo.

27

40.5

33.3

59.5

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

Registered in UN

Registered in Medical

syndicate

Registered in faith-based org

Registered in UN

Registered in Medical syndicate

Registered in faith-based org

Protection

Upon asking respondent households whether they were registered with the UNHCR, the relief centre of the Syndicate of Medicine (connected to Souria Al Ghad Organisation) and other charitable organisations, it was found that some are registered in more than one of these entities and others are registered in none. Nonethe-less, 41% of total household respondents were registered with the UNHCR as asylum seekers (50% in Oth-man, 10% in Omraneya, 29% in Faisal and 62% in Obour).

Protection wise, Omraneya shows an alarmingly high number of people not registered with UNHCR. Peo-ple reported having been in Egypt for more than three months without renewing their visas. Some of them claimed that this was the reason for withdrawing their children from Egyptian schools as they cannot afford the fines for overdue renewal of tourist visas for another three months (costing around 200 L.E).

It seemed that those who did not get their residency through school enrolment of their children or through the UNHCR refugee card are not aware of the risk of detention and repatriation by the Egyptian government and in a few cases they have been living in Egypt for a relatively long period in ignorance of these issues.

The total number of Syrians registered in faith- based and other charitable organisations accounts for around 60% of total respondent households. Thirty percent have registered with the Relief Centre of the Syndicate of Medicine. Although this registration does not provide legal and residency protection, it involves refugees in a systematised organisation with access to information, health and basic needs support.

Pick-pocketing incidences, including theft of Syrian passports, were reported during focus group discus-sions. Respondents in Faisal reported cases of street violence, robbery and harassment. One respondent reported an attempt to kidnap her. In Omraneya, agencies working with the Syrian community reported their involvement in organized begging networks, and that they seemed unwilling to integrate or participate so-cially. In Masaken Othman, the most prevalent security concern was fear of living near thugs or drug dealers (mainly hashish), but most reported maintaining good relations with their Egyptian neighbours. The general stigma of the neighbourhood influences the respondent households to avoid movements within and from/to the area. Higher levels of spousal conflict and domestic violence upon arrival to Egypt were reported.

Finally, general security concerns in Egypt were adding to the feelings of stress and insecurity of the Syrian community. Sexual and Gender based Violence: Girls and women reported harassment incidences (see sec-tion below)

Figure 6. Percentages of households who are registered as asylum seekers with UN-HCR, the relief centre in the Syndicate of Medicine and in Faith-based organizations,

28

Children’s psychological problems

In total, 63% of respondent households reported their children suffering from psycho-social problems. As per area, the findings were as follows:

In Othman (70% of respondent households)

In Omraneya (33% of respondent households)

In Faisal, (71% of respondent households)

In Obour, (77% of respondent households)

Although the least number of those who reported problems were in Omraneya, the respondents who spoke out reporting these problems showed extra needy and complex cases.

The reported problems were as follows:

26% exhibited having exaggerated fears, 21% had sleeping problems and nightmares, 13% reported lack of concentration, 12 % of young children had involuntary urination, 15% displayed aggressive or violent ten-dencies especially with other children either in schools or in the neighbourhood, 13% stated other problems (such as a new habit of gnawing nails and one reported depression).

Child Protection

Figure 7. Types of psycho-social problems reported in children

Comparing these findings to the numbers shown in UNHCR Cairo 2012 assess-ment of 183 Syrian families, the list is corresponding. Exaggerated fear is again the largest reported problem, but in different percentages (42% in the UNHCR report and 26% here). Few (new) problems are reported. Involuntary urination in younger children and exaggerated violence. These have been reported to the surveying team and were brought about in “focus group discussions”.

29

Reports of violence against children

Parental and domestic violence have been reported, as well as physical violence against children by school teachers and bullying by other children. A case of extreme parental violence against their child has been reported in Othman causing serious physical injury to the child. This phenomenon is associated with the parents’ feelings of entrapment and powerlessness.

As seen above, the respondent households reported hearing about 54 cases with problems related to child protection issues among their community members and acquaintances. The number of those who had heard of drop-outs, working children, and children with psycho-social problems were substantial. No one reported hearing about cases of child trafficking, smuggling or involvement in war crimes.

Child exploitation in work has been repeatedly reported in interviews, discussions and household visits. There is a large number of working children who are mostly adolescents who work long hours for less than fair wages. Jobs ranged from factory work, day labour, serving as office boys in offices, shops and other types of services. In Obour, children were employed selling small items on the street and in front of mosques. In Omraneya, children were also engaged in begging.

In the Focus Group Discussion with the Syrian children and Egyptian activists, it was reported that the children, when they first joined the youth group were expressing a lot of fear and anxiety- this was revealed in drawings they were encouraged to make as part of the activities. However, as time went by, the children started behaving more normally, interacting well and playing together. The activists also reported that a high number of children were not enrolled in school although there were no logistical constraints and the financial capacities of their families would have allowed for it. The activists attributed this to feelings of temporari-ness on the part of the parents, who hoped/ expected to return to Syria soon.

The several incidences of family separation which were heard about by respondents were attributed to many causes. One important one was the ‘emigration’ of adolescent boys coming on their own or with relatives to escape compulsory military service in Syria once they reach 18 years old. Others were due to the

Figure 8. Respondent hearing about child protection-related cases

30

death or disappearance of the father in Syria and the family fleeing for their own safety.

One case of a child- headed household was reported in Omraneya in which the father died during the con-flict, yet upon investigation, we found that the mother was with the family and the child (a boy of 16 years old) was considered, as per the culture, as the head of the household.

Protection of young girls,

As seen above, five respondents in the four areas reported hearing about cases of early marriages of young girls. Yet, they did not provide details or wish to comment.

Reports of marriage proposals to young Syrian girls show that the Syrian community perceives such pro-posals differently. While in two cases the parents of the girls (both of whom were over 18) agreed to marry their daughters to Egyptian men and expressed their satisfaction concerning the general conditions of the marriage, such as the dowry and other details (from the mothers’ FGD), considerable segments of the Syr-ian community are offended of such proposals especially when associated with their vulnerable state as refugees. Two young girls (in the young girls’ FGD) reported being proposed to by Egyptian men, yet did not report whether this was from an individual or organised by a group. The ENA interviews with commu-nity leaders reported having a religious individual (as he calls himself Sheikh) engaged in match-making between Syrian girls and Egyptian men, and they knew of one marriage that he had arranged. (The age of the girl was not known by the interviewee). The interviewee further insisted that this man was working by himself and not affiliated to any organisation. (In Egypt, the match making business is common and there are ubiquitous public advertisements for marriage brokers.)

There are many factors attributed to the phenomenon of marriage proposals to Syrian girls/women. Syrian women are perceived by Egyptian men as being “good wives”, and their current state as refugees suggests their availability and possibly lower dowry expectations increases the tendency of Egyptian men (and non-Egyptians as the case is also raised in Jordan) to approach them for marriage. However, Syrians themselves find this perception demeaning. An issue which was raised by a few interviewed activists is proxy marriages which happen through mediators approaching Syrian families with young girls to marry them to (absent) grooms from the Gulf. As this has been reported by Syrian refugees in Jordan, it was assumed to be happen-ing in Egypt as well, although it has been outlawed now for several years. However, on the ground, the field research has not found any evidence of such cases.

There is a need to mobilize young girls and set up culturally sensitive programmes which encourage their participation in activities outside the home, including education, raising awareness of their rights, recreation and developing their capacity to network and find support in other community groups.

Harassment,

Syrian girls reported higher levels of harassment from boys and men in public places at the beginning of their stay in Egypt. By changing their style of dress from the classic Syrian coat and head cover to an Egyp-tian one has decreased the level of harassment significantly. In Othman, girls’ freedom of movement was severely curtailed by their parents. One of the cases of a female student dropping out of school was because her parents worried about her safety, even though no incidents at school had been reported. school anymore.

31

Parents stated the following issues as their main concerns: Security, Violence with other children, fears of kidnapping, harassment of girls and health problems. They also stated the financial capabilities, the situation of education and non-accessibility to proper health services as of the main causes of worry. They were very concerned about their future and how they could provide their children with the basic needs.

Syrian children, if not in school, spend most of their time at home watching TV, or playing electronic games on the internet if available. One child who has some psychological needs was reported as drawing com-pulsively. Children also were found to be kept indoors more than is usual in either Egypt or Syria and their families rarely take them out to entertain and socialize. In some areas, (Masaken Othman and Omraneya) younger children could play outdoors with other Egyptian and Syrian children. Older children were ex-pected to help their parents in their free time with domestic chores (the girls), selling something or helping fathers who has an enterprise.

In the focus groups, many people mentioned watching TV as the standard daily routine. Lack of toys, sports equipment and games were frequently reported in all areas and in the focus groups. The main change from their daily routines in Syria was playing in the streets which they missed a lot here and also the regular picnic days that they used to enjoy as a family every week-end. Young girls specifically had difficulties in joining any activities outside the house due to the over-protective/ conservative attitudes of their parents.

Coping Strategies,

Seventy one percent of the respondent households said they were coping with their new circumstances in Egypt through reducing expenditure on food, while a larger proportion (78%) cope by reducing expendi-ture on transportation and outings. 46% cope by not enrolling their children in schools to avoid paying fees and other expenses. 56% of the respondent households reported reducing or eliminating pocket money for children living in the household (-this percentage was reported very high in Masaken Othman). 42% of the respondent households reported other methods such as making their children work.

Focus group discussions revealed similar trends among women. Most of the women reported not going out unless there was an organised activity somewhere that is facilitated to participate in (i.e. travel costs are subsidised), reduction of varied meals and food items and being obliged to find jobs for their children. The focus group discussion with a group of Syrian children showed that the elimination of pocket money result-ed in children seeking work in order to have some cash to buy snacks.

Parents listed concerns, Coping Strategies, Children’s Everyday Life, and Entities taking care of,

Figure9. Listed coping strategies which have influence on Children

32

Focus group discussions revealed similar trends among women. Not going out unless there is a kind of activity that is organized somewhere and is facilitated to participate in, most of the women reported very little going out, reduction of meals and food items and being obliged to find jobs to their children. The focus group discussion with a group of Syrian children showed that the elimination of pocket money has resulted in children seeking work in order to have some cash in hand.

Entities/Organizations taking care of Children,

The findings of the Needs Assessment show that, in the four study areas, little is being done by organisa-tions or entities to directly support children and to look after issues related to child protection, education and development. Although a few cases are reached by UNHCR implementing partners, especially in Obour and Sixth October, Masaken Othman, Omraneya and Faisal are less advantaged in that regard. Interviewing the staff at the Syrian community centre run by Tadamoun in Sitta October showed that, although they have developed activities for children, none from Masaken Othman comes to them.

Upon asking the respondents who reported cases of separated families, or children’s psycho-social needs about their response, it was revealed that few of them had sought help from organisations. A few families went to UNHCR implementing partners and others to religious entities for assistance. One household who reported depression in a family member sought help from religious people.

Those who sought help from UNHCR implementing partners (7% of all interviewed households) were satis-fied about the provided service.

33

Although Egypt has allowed Syrians to access to basic health care and education, they have to go through certain procedural steps in order to utilize that privilege, and are often hindered by bewildering bureaucracy. It was reported that the situation has improved gradually since the beginning of the academic year as the lower tiers of educational and health management have become more familiar with serving Syrians.

Required procedures to get enrolled in schools in Egypt:

- Having certified papers from schools in Syria which are ratified by the Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs to allocate the child as per his/her previous level. A long procedure should then take place to do necessary endorsements and make the routine registration in the Egyptian system. It is a compulsory to have papers ratified by the local administration for education and from the Syrian embassy.

- When papers from school in Syria are not available, the child is allocated according to the year of birth and a placement test. The placement test is not always done, and a child may be placed where there is a space. Or, the placement test is sometimes inaccurate and does not reflect the real level of the child’s educational attainment. Focus groups reported having children placed in higher levels, or sometimes lower ones which shows that there no consistent way of conducting this procedure. This has caused the drop-out of some children.

The main issues that were raised in terms of the discrepancies in between the Syrian and Egyp-tian educational systems are as follows:

- In Syria, children born in January are put with children who started the previous September, which is not the case in Egypt. This has been stated as a major issue for some students to redo the same academic year especially when they are high achieving students.

- The Baccalaureate issue: those who want to join the third level of secondary education have to do the second level again as the system in Egypt takes the results of both years into account for the certificate. Some Syrians reported seeking enrolment in the Libyan school in Cairo in order to avoid this problem.

- Families who arrive during the second semester do not know how to make up the first semester without having the child repeat the second half of the previous year. For that reason, some are not enrolling their children as soon as they arrive but wait until the beginning of the next aca-demic year. As for the administrative procedures, when parents do not process the papers of their children directly upon arrival, more procedural steps are required to prove residence and attend-ance, as reported by some mothers.

Education

34

Number of children enrolled in different types of schools in Egypt

The total number of school age children (6-18 years) in the four districts surveyed was 89 chil-dren forming 39% of total population. In the four areas, only 30 children are enrolled in different schools which accounts for 30% in total. However, it is noteworthy that 15 of those households have been in Egypt for two months or less; six in Othman, five in Omraneya, one in Faisal and three in Obour.

Seven of the households (47%) reported willingness to enrol their children in schools but they still needed time to settle in.

In Othman:

6 out of 23 children are registered in schools, all in governmental primary schools; many attend the Syrian Study groups as well. Two are in the elementary class and one at the secondary level.

In Omraneya:

5 out of 21 children in Omraneya were in school; all of them in governmental primary schools,

In Faisal,

8 out of 15 children are enrolled in schools, 4 in primary governmental schools and 2 in private ones, 1 in elementary governmental school and 1 in university.

In Obour,

11 students out of 33 are enrolled in schools; 7 in government primary education, 3 in elemen-tary and 1 in secondary education.

Figure 10. Percentages of School enrolment per area including new comers

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School Drop-outs from Syria,

It is important to note that some children had dropped out of school before they came to Egypt. Previous drop-out rates were alarmingly high in Omraneya with 14 children out of 21 children (67%) dropping in Syria.

One in Othman out of 23 children

Fourteen children out of 21 in Omraneya,

None in Faisal,

Three children out of 33 in Obour,

Length of absence from School in Syria,

In general, absence from schools in Syria before coming to Egypt has been extensively reported and this had a major influence on integration into the educational system in Egypt and on the confidence of the student towards his/her level. Long absence from school has created a barrier to education in many cases.

In Othman: Four households reported no absence (30%). However, the 70 percent of households who re-ported absence from schools due to the uncertain security situation had absences ranging between 1 month and 18 months.

In Omraneya: 67% of children had absences between 12 months to 24 months,

In Faisal: 57% of children had absences between 3 months to 24 months,

In Obour: 54% of children had absences between 2 months to 24 months.

School Drop-outs in Egypt

A few children who were enrolled in schools in Egypt had to leave them before completing a year. However, these are only 3 children: 1 in Masaken Othman, 1 in Omraneya and 1 in Obour. The reasons were difficul-ties of transportation, security reasons for girls and the need to work - two of the drop-outs are working now.

According to the UNHCR Needs Assessment of 137 Syrian Families in Alexandria quoted earlier: ‘38% of interviewed families said their main concern about education was paying school fees. 25% said that differenc-es between the Egyptian and Syrian curricula were the main problem.”

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Figure 11. Difficulties reported as reasons behind not enrolling in schools

The UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP joint needs assessment of the Syrian refugees in Cairo, conducted in November 2012, showed that around 65% of respondent fami-lies think that financial support is what is needed to encourage uptake of education and around 30% think that remedial classes for children who have missed school are needed.

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Parents’ Educational Support Capacity

Parents’ educational support capacities contribute to creating an enabling environment for learning within the home. It also gives an indication of the potential to invest in reinforcing education through getting sup-port from parents who can educate their own or other children. In the times of long or frequent absence from schools, parents and particularly mothers, who can provide educational support or home schooling, made a big difference to the intellectual and social development of their children. It was found in the households surveyed that this indicator varied from area to another, but there was not a high level of home support over-all.

Masaken Othman

It was revealed that most fathers and mothers only have either primary or elementary education. Only one single case of a mother holding a university degree was reported.

Omraneya

It was revealed that 63% of the mothers are illiterate and the same percentage applies for the fathers. Few have basic and elementary education and there is a single case of a father with a university degree.

Faisal

It was revealed that 44% of the mothers and a single case of a father have secondary education. 50% of the fathers have an intermediate institute degree, others ranged between primary to elementary education.

Obour

It was revealed that 30% of fathers have graduated from an intermediate institute. Other parents have vo-cational education or either elementary or basic education. There is one case of a parent with a university degree.

Students’ opinions of their schools

In schools, children made friends and enjoyed a positive experience, especially where their classmates were Syrians. Others did not report such a good experience. The Syrian Study Groups seem to have a good influ-ence on children’s learning experience.

Masaken Othman: asking the school enrolled children about their experience in school showed that those registered in the Syrian school like it very much and have many friends.

Omraneya: Some of the students like their Egyptian schools very much and others do not – they are pretty evenly divided.

Faisal: Children here liked school very much (these were the ones enrolled in the private school). Others reported high levels of violence against them from other school children which made dislike the experience.

Obour: Children in Obour liked their schools in general. Only some were not sure of the experience (25% of respondent students) and a few did not like it at all.

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Friends in schools,

Most of the students in Othman reported having other Syrian students as their friends and were happy about that (as mostly they were attending in Syrian Study Groups). In Omraneya, Faisal and Obour, some children had Syrian friends and a few had both Egyptian and Syrian friends. Violence in schools was frequently re-ported by parents as mentioned above. A few cases of introverted children who had no friends were reported. Three cases were so affected by the changes in their situation they lacked confidence to make friends.

Difficulties facing the students & their parents while attending school

Reported difficulties were numerous; among which were change of curriculum, accent problems, over-crowding in class, accessibility to schools, bad treatment from teachers and Egyptian peers which reached violence against Syrian children. Besides, geographical location played an important role in making it more difficult in some areas.

Those registered in the school from Masaken Othman reported transportation as the most challenging aspect. Others said dealing with school teachers and the administrative procedures in Egypt hindered them from in-tegrating in the educational system. In Omraneya, it was revealed that many students have problems related to differences between the Syrian and Egyptian accent, especially those for whom Arabic is their second language. Others face problems related to the differences between the Syrian and Egyptian educational cur-ricula. In Faisal, they reported maltreatment by Egyptian schoolmates, accent differences and overcrowded classes. In Obour, they reported change of accent and curriculum. Many stated overcrowding in class, ill treatment by teachers, and lack of access for some respondents who lived in isolated housing projects with-out good transport links. Some parents reported their children suffering psycho-social distress.

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Those registered in the school from Masaken Othman reported transportation is the most challenging aspect. Others said dealing with school teachers and administrative procedure in Egypt hinders them from integrat-ing in the educational system. The questionnaire results revealed that 27% of the students have problems re-lated to differences between the Syrian and Egyptian % face the problems related to the differences between the Syrian and Egyptian Educational curricula. In Faisal, Obour,

Establishing a Syrian school has been demanded by the Syrian community since the start of the 2012/ 2013 academic year. The announcement of the establishment of that school in Sixth October made many families wait for almost two months without registering their children in Egyptian schools. As a result there was a long waiting list for the new school. An Egyptian NGO called “Nasa’em Al Ganah” took the initiative of opening a school, and recruited a group of Syrian school teachers selected from the community to tutor the students. Venues for the Study Groups were donated by individuals and faith-based organisations. The Syrian school now has five Study Group locations hosting around 1200 children.

In order to attend the Syrian School/ Study Groups, children must still be enrolled in a local Egyptian school. They would then attend classes in the Syrian School/ Study groups, and take the standard exams from the Egyptian schools that they are officially enrolled in. This practice, according to the mothers interviewed in the focus groups discussions, has resulted in problems of inconsistency between the two school systems and the children’s grades suffer as result. Some families have decided to leave their children in Egyptian government schools for the second semester while others still prefer the Syrian school where their children have made friends and enjoy a better educational environment (mainly because there is a lower student: teacher ratio). The Syrian School now has lost one of its venues and after being accommodated in a mosque for some time has recently moved to a new rented building (February 2013). It is not known how long the Syrian School and Study Groups can be maintained. In general, it is poorly planned and man-aged, but does meet a recognised need in the Syrian community.

Focus group discussions (FGD) with the school teachers provided valuable information on the academic, social and psychological situation of the children and reflected the importance of supporting such a school with food items as students often arrive hungry at school. The interviewed teachers reported many orphans among the students. Some children are reported to be withdrawn and fearful. It also raised the importance of subsidising transportation for chil-dren to attend the school. Many children, especially from Masaken Othman, have dropped out due to their families’ inability to provide transportation expenses.

On the side of provision of education, lack of teaching materials, supplies and school books were reported. The teach-ers also raised the issue of the differences between the Syrian and Egyptian curricula and grade levels, yet they liked the Egyptian curriculum. They also reported deficiency in the English language skills acquired by the Syrian chil-dren. The student population was not stable- some families moved away during the school term or students re- joined Egyptian schools. The most important issue was a safe play area for the children, preferably in or near the school but in case land wasn’t available, the playground could be nearby.

A Syrian school director who was with the Syrian School at the beginning of the school year, and who later left her position in the school, has recently taken over a venue and turned it into a semi-private school. Each child pays 100 L.E a month and another 100 L.E. for transportation. This school has accommodated recent arrivals and works along the same principles as the Syrian School (i.e. children must be enrolled in Egyptian schools as well). Syrian Teachers are employed, and the classes are kept to a maximum size of 35 children per class.

Lessons learnt from this school experience: The Syrian School has been filling many gaps for the Syrian community: their feeling of temporariness, nostalgia, their need to socialize with other Syrians and to have their children integrated with Syrian peers. Most importantly, it facilitates their introduction to the new context. Besides their distrust of the Egyptian educational system with its overcrowded classes and managerial problems, it was very important to have a school that provides a bridge for them to the Egyptian system in the longer term. These Study Groups can also provide remedial or reinforcement education. This all should be done with strict quality control on the educational quality and management systems and the monitoring of the formal school attendance so that it complements the Egyptian system.

The Syrian School (Study groups)

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An alarming case was found by the data collectors when conducting the household visits in Masaken Oth-man, of 8 Syrian children who had Hepatitis A. According to the WHO, Hep A is basically transmitted through ingestion of contaminated food and water, or through direct contact with an infectious person. Hepa-titis A is also associated with poor sanitation. One of these children who had previous kidney problems died. The other children were in hospital for some time. Both an improved quality of life and timely vaccinations could have prevented this illness.In general, lack of vaccinations, malnutrition, anaemia and gastro-enteritis infections were among the fre-quently reported health issues. In addition, dermatological allergies, respiratory infections and ‘flu were also reported by many respondents. High blood pressure, kidney problems, diabetes and heart problems were reported among adults. Masaken OthmanThe questionnaire showed that 20% of children under 2 in the respondent households had been vac cinated in Egypt, leaving a very high number un-vaccinated.

• 17% of the children in the respondent households are malnourished, one case is suffering from intes tinal mal-absorption & 5 other cases are of anaemia. • 8% of the adults in the respondent households suffer from high blood pressure.• 30% of the children in the respondent households suffer from Hepatitis A. • 14% of the children in the respondent households suffered from ‘flu, colds and coughing.• 6% of the children in the respondent households suffer from Asthma • 3% of the children in the respondent households and 4% of the adults in the respondent households suffer from diabetes• The questionnaire also revealed single cases of adults who suffered from:o war injurieso kidney stoneso clogged arterieso vocal cords paralysiso breast feeding problemso chronic headacheo Inner ear infection The questionnaire also revealed single cases of children who suffered from:o Chronic diarrhoeao Intestinal problemso Irritation from dusto thyroid gland problems

OmraneyaMany respondent households reported that they are unaware of the medical history of their children concerning vaccinations that their children had or should have received. The data collectors distrib uted maps of the location of the local health unit as they conducted the survey.

• None of the respondent households’ children were vaccinated in Egypt.• 13% of the respondent households’ children were reported to be malnourished.• A single case of a child newly born in Egypt was reported not have had any kind of vaccination. • 18% of respondent household children suffered chicken pox in Egypt.• A single case of a father and another case of a child were reported to have diabetes.• Frequent cases of children suffering from respiratory system infections such as bronchitis,

Health Issues: Vaccination in Egypt, Cases of malnutrition and disease in adults and children

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chest irritation, cold and ‘flu and a single case of ear infection were reported.• A single case of a disabled child who was injured in a car accident was reported.

Obour• Four children were in the age of vaccination and two of them have been vaccinated. Parents reported problems with the Egyptian health system and the need to wait until a specific number of people had been collected to get specific types of vaccination.• They reported malnutrition and anaemia and children with growth and developmental problems.• Frequent cases of children have suffered from dermatological allergies, bronchial irritation, tonsilli tis, cold and ‘flu, • One case in Obour was reported for a child with Thalassaemia and required episodic blood transfu sions.

Adults in Obour reported the following health problems: Heart problems, high blood pressure and kidney problems, diabetes, rheumatism and one man had an ulcer due to a gunshot wound he had in his stomach.

Faisal• Two cases of children who are due to have their vaccinations- one is having the vaccination and the other is not. • Frequent cases of children having suffered from tonsillitis and dermatological problems. • Adults reported fewer health problems than other areas, but still the common ones of high blood pressure and diabetes.

The Focus Group Discussion in Sixth October showed a better record for vaccinations for children, as the health department in Sixth October is located in an easily accessible area beside the landmark Housari Mosque. Women were aware of the need to take their children there for regular vaccination.

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Lack or unaffordability of some Non Food Items were reported in all areas and to varying degrees. The sec-tions below list items available or lacking in the four areas.

Masaken Othman- • Clothing & shoes are relatively available with a deficiency in 16% of the respondents’ households vs. the unavailability in 8% of households in other areas• Bedding is relatively available with a deficiency in 8% of the respondents’ households vs. the una-vailability in 8% of other respondents’ households• Shampoo and hygiene products are relatively available with a deficiency in only 8% in the respond-ents’ households vs. the unavailability in 16% of other respondents’ households• Laundry detergents are relatively available with a deficiency in 16% of the respondents’ households vs. the unavailability in 8% in other respondents’ households• Cutlery and cooking equipment are relatively available with a deficiency in 16% of the respondents’ households • Gas for cooking and heating water is relatively available with a deficiency in 8% of the respondents’ households vs. the unavailability in 25% in other respondents’ households• School supplies were lacking in 8% of respondents’ households

Omraneya • Clothing & shoes are relatively available with a deficiency in 40% of the respondents’ households.• Shampoo and hygiene products are relatively available with a deficiency in 40% of the respondents’ households.• Laundry detergents are relatively available with a deficiency in 40% of the respondents’ households.• Gas for cooking and heating water is relatively available with a deficiency in 20% of the respond-ents’ households.• Cutlery and cooking equipment are relatively available with a deficiency in 20% of the respondents’ households vs. the unavailability in one of the respondents’ households.• Stationery & school books are relatively available with a deficiency in one of the respondents’ house-holds and are unavailable in 20% of respondents’ households

Faisal• Clothing & shoes are relatively available with a deficiency in 70% of the respondents’ households. One respondent reported unavailability.• Bedding is relatively available with a deficiency in 57% of the respondents’ households,• Shampoo and hygiene products are relatively available with a deficiency in 57% of the respondents’ households.• Laundry detergents are relatively available with a deficiency in 57% of the respondents’ households • Cutlery and cooking equipment are relatively available with a deficiency in 42% of the respondents’ households and unavailability in one household.• Gas for cooking and heating water is relatively available with a deficiency in 57% of the respond-ents’ households.• School supplies are lacking in 42% of respondents’ households and unavailable in 28% households.

Unavailability or Deficiencies in NFI’s

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Obour,• Clothing & shoes are relatively available with a deficiency in 70% of the respondents’ households. One respondent reported unavailability.• Bedding is relatively available with a deficiency in 38% of the respondents’ households,• Shampoo and hygiene products are relatively available with a deficiency in 42% of the respondents’ households.• Laundry detergents are relatively available with a deficiency in 30% of the respondents’ households • Cutlery and cooking equipment are relatively available with a deficiency in 30% of the respondents’ households • Gas for cooking and heating water is relatively available with a deficiency in 8% of the respondents’ households.• Stationery is relatively available with a deficiency in 38% of respondents’ households

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Appendices

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Background

The number of refugees who are officially registered by the UNHCR in Egypt (date?) is 4,800 however recent reports indicate that up to 150,000 people (the majority of whom are women and children) are still unregistered and unable to access basic services such as health and education, as well as potential financial support from the UNCHR. Ostensibly this is because many of the refugees fear to register with the UNHCR since they do not want to jeopardize the safety of their families who remain in Syria. The main concern is being identified, and their information being shared or leaked. If they are unable to access services, it makes SCs potential interventions even more urgent and necessary.

In 2011 and the beginning of 2012, refugees rented apartments in two areas of Cairo (6th of October and Nasr City districts) that had basic infrastructure in terms of electricity, water and sanitation. Syrians rent-ing private accommodation often paid/pay relatively high sums that deplete their savings. As the emergency enters a chronic stage, the pressure on Syrian families increases – and with a recent influx of people, limited spaces available, high rent, no real durable solutions and winter arriving, the situation is critical, as many of the newly arrived refugees are currently accommodated in informal settlements with no basic sanitation facilities.

The Egyptian government stated it will maintain a hospitable policy vis-à-vis Syrian refugees, and the presi-dent has issued a decree that allows Syrian refugees access to basic education and health services. Still, the bureaucratic procedures and the low quality of the services deter Syrian from utilizing these facilities.

Save the Children is recruiting an Emergency Response Assessment Consultant to assess and identify the needs of Syrian refugees in Egypt using Save the Children’s Emergency Standard Operating Procedures as a guide. The assessment will inform an Emergency Response initiative that will respond to the needs of the Syrian refugees and their children.

Deliverables

An assessment report that will identify: (1) the scale of the Syrian refugees crisis in Egypt, (2) priority areas of intervention (protection, health, shelter, etc.), based on needs and rights violations, (3) the socio-economic characteristics of the target population and impact locations, (4) recommendations for methodologies and approaches for interventions based on Save the Children best practices and in accordance with Save the Children’s emergency standard operating procedures.

Activities/Responsibilities

• Review Syrian refugees related information compiled by Egypt Country team

• Develop an assessment framework

• Identify appropriate tools for conducting an assessment; with special focus on child friendly tools for children

• Train a group of Egyptian and Syrian volunteers, as well as SC team on tools used to conduct rapid assessment

• Lead on the data collection process and analysis

1. Terms of Reference

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• Conduct a data analysis workshop with volunteers and SC team

• Present the main findings and the recommendations of the report to the Extended Senior Manage-ment Team

• Finalize the Assessment Report including recommended methodology and approaches.

Reporting

The Emergency Response Assessment Consultant will work under the supervision of, Mai Gaballah, Street Children Program Manager.

Child Safeguarding Policies

Save the Children is a child rights organisation where all its staff and consultants, associates, and vendors sign off Save the Children’s Child Safeguarding Policies that aims to reduce the possibility of child abuse and exploitation. The consultant will sign and abide by Save the Children’s child safeguarding policies along with the agreement.

Qualifications

The consultant should have the following essential qualifications and experience:

• 3- 5 years of experience in the field of emergency response

• Analytical skills and experience in designing and implementing rapid assessments

• Solid understanding of child rights

• Experience in delivering training

• Excellent facilitation skills

• Ability to work as a team player, and provide leadership

• Experience with Syrian refugees desired

• English and Arabic writing fluency essential.

• Good report writing skills

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2. The Emergency Needs Assessment List of Variables

Demographic Information, female headed households, number of generations per households, of families sharing the same place, length of stay in Egypt, ways of coming, having social networks in the settled space and relationships to the Egyptian community,

Housing issues, rent payment

Registration in international/ local NGOs , syndicates and relief organisations

Security issues in Egypt

Percentage of children with psychological problems & a listing of the problems with the per centages affected

Violence against children; listing of the sources of violence,

Number of respondents who have heard of child protection-related problems,

Young girls’ protection

Gender-based violence

Parents top concerns, Coping Strategies that influence children, Children’s Everyday Life, and Entities taking care of,

Number of children Enrolled in different types of schools Egypt

Students’ opinion of their schools


Percentage of school drop- outs in Syria ,

Period of school absence in Syria

Perception of schools in Egypt

Reasons of dropping out of school in Egypt

Parents’ Educational Support Capacity

Parents’ employment

Vaccination in Egypt, Cases of malnutrition and diseases in adults & children

Unavailability or deficiencies in NFIs

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- The UNHCR Needs Assessment Document in Cairo and Alexandria (November 2012)

- UNHCR Rapid Assessment of 183 Syrian Families in October 2012

- Rapid Assessment of 189 Syrian Families in Damietta,

- Tool for children’s best interest determination for temporary BID for temporary care arrangements

- Save the Children documents on Syrian Refugees in other Countries,

- Child-friendly spaces Design and guidelines,

- Guidelines for the conduction of Needs Assessment,

- UNHCR periodic charts and data on the issue of refugees,

- Fard Organization quick profiling on Syrians in Suez Canal Cities,

3. Reading List of Documents for the Needs Assessment:

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4. List of In-depth Interviews and minutes

- Mr. Sameh Abdul Tawab, Nasa`ym al Ganna NGO which is running the Syrian Study Groups,- Nancy Baron, PSTIC director,- Dr. Ahmad Abdul Latif (Activist in Ormaneya and an IOM employee)- Mr. Hisham “ Human Relief Centre in the Syndicate of Medicine”- Mr. Ibrahiem Shawky “Human Relief Centre in the Syndicate of Medicine”- Abdullah Al Sayed (Charity associate in Ormaneya and Souria Tastagheeth Organization activist)- Sukaina from Bait Al 3ailah- Katada from the Syrian Azhar Scholars Coalition,- Phone call with Abdullah Radwan (Beit al 3ailah Sitta October branch)- Nivine and Eman from Multaka al Irtibat (a civil society organization working with Syrians)- Dr. Ghaiath Barakat, Souria Al ghad- Mr. Ma’moun Said, Souria Al ghad, Obour Branch,- Eman and Asmaa from Resala,- Ms. Hanadi, the principal of the Syrian school study group school in Sitta October,- Mr. Abu Ammar, a community leader,- Mr. Abu Nidal, a community leader,- Phone call with Mrs. Om Humam, the principal of the newly established semi-private Syrian study groups in Sitta October,- Phone call with Mrs. Fatima Idriss, the responsible person of the Syrian Community Centre from Tada moun,-

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Meeting with Nancy Baron, Director of PSTIC on 26.12.2012

The Psycho-Social Training Institute in Cairo (PSTIC) is an initiative which began in April 2009. A group of international and national organisations along with the United Nations and AUC collaborated in order to facilitate this initiative. The goal of the Institute is to increase the psychosocial and mental health support presently offered to refugees.

PSTIC have trained psycho-social workers from different origins and are directly supporting refugee indi-viduals and families who have psycho-social needs and refer them to a secondary care when needed. Nine of the psycho-social workers are Syrians. After completing extensive training in the centre, these 9 started to work with displaced Syrians all over Cairo. The centre’s capacity is going to be developed through establish-ing a mental health centre which will do assessment and referrals. This wellness centre will be supervised by psychiatrists who conduct counselling in various languages. It will also form support groups to reduce education stress and provide medical support to people with psychological needs. PSTIC is also operating from the newly established Tadamoun Community centre and from The Syrian Refugees’ bond through their clinics ones a week.

Dr. Nancy has raised the following issues with regards to any intervention that is going to be initiated with the Syrian Refugees:

• An equity-approach working with the Syrian refugees along with other refugees and the Egyptian community is crucial,

• Build on the existing facilities/services and extend and provide support when possible, working through other actors who either already work with refugees or the Egyptian community to avoid im-partial activities which will serve only Syrians,

She recommended that it is important to develop an integrated approach or to direct the resources through other well-established refugee and community actors who have been working with these communities for some time.

Developing Child-friendly spaces which only target Syrians is not also a solution; integration with other children should happen on a daily basis.

The Office of Human Relife In The Syndicate Of Medicine

This centre is an Egyptian humanitarian relief centre, which has played a humanitarian role in the past in regards to conflict in Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya. They have a budget of 25 million L.E,- 80% of which is directed to serve the Syrians, through many services. Nonetheless, only 50% is allocated to Syrians inside Egypt and the other 50% is directed to establishing a field hospital inside Syria in one of the conflict zones. They also provide assistance to Syrians through a field hospital, housing and a charity organisation in Tripoli in Lebanon, provide non-food items in Hatay in Turkey and distribute food items in Zaatari Camp in Jordan.

1. Health services:

Partnering two hospitals who receive health cases after referrals from the centre in the syndicate, (Tal-bya in Haram and Farouk in Maadi) and other branches which are referred to upon need,

Medicine: they have contracted a pharmacy to give free medicine as per prescriptions and

4a. Minutes Of Meetings With Actors In The Syrian Context

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referrals from the centre,

Each family has three packets of children’s milk a month and this is renewed upon need for more as per having more than one child,

Patients who need kidney dialysis can get this for free with the centre in Haram Street,

Any urgent operation is provided for free upon approval from the council,

Women about to give birth and people with injuries from the conflict are accepted directly into hospi-tals without even waiting for the approval from the council,

2. Financial Support:

They used to give around 1000 L.E for each family (at the beginning of the crisis around 11 months ago), yet with the increase of the number and the big pressure on them, this amount has now been reduced. To receive this sum, Syrians need to produce their passports and the rent contract of the house or place they reside in.

3. Accommodation:

Through networking: they developed a database of donors/ landlords and seekers of housing in most of the Egyptian cities. They further hold responsibility for those who are being accommodated in case of any unforeseen circumstances with the owner or donor.

They cooperate closely with Bait el 3aileh (an NGO affiliated with the MBs) who complement their work by providing other donations.

They have also developed a network for employment opportunities and are working on another database for that.

Website: http//www.humanreliefagency in Egypt HRA.EG

Quick Profiling of the groups of Syrians in Omraneya:

This area was chosen for profiling upon hearing some complaints from Egyptian individuals working with the Syrians there regarding their poor participation and engagement in beggary. The profiled groups in the areas of Ter3it el Zamr and in Traiseh, are Syrians of Turkmen origin, as they introduced themselves. They came from rural areas around Homs, Hama, Aleppo and Daraa. They are connected through ethnic networks that bring them together even though they come from parts of Syria, as the Turkmen community is tightly-knit, through marriage and other kinship relations. Upon coming to Egypt, they started clustering themselves in these areas since around August 2012 through coming to the landmark of Khatem al Moursaleen Mosque where charitable organisations are located.

Economic Activities/Dependency Ratio

Very little economic integration: only one man out of the interviewed 9 men works as a vendor selling wrist watches around different areas in Cairo. He still seeks assistance to cope with his family’s expenses.

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The accommodation is being supported by donations from faith-based organisations and individuals.

These refugees came to Omraneya as they thought that Sixth October was too isolated for them as they pre-fer to be closer to the centre of the city. They are trying to move towards Faisal.

Education

The interviewed families had 17 children; eight of them were out of school although they were of school age.

The ones enrolled in schools (5 children) were in governmental schools in Omraneya. Two children were coping well while two others said to have learning difficulties due to dialect differences, and not being inte-grated with the Egyptian children at school. One child was scared about being beaten or hit by fellow Egyp-tian students although this had not happened.

Others said that the expenses of formalising their residency in Egypt which is 150 L.E per child is too ex-pensive for them, to the extent that they would take children out of schools on that account.

Child Protection Issues:

Upon asking about cases of traumatized children or children with special needs, it was found that many children had problems when they first arrived but things have improved with time. However, five cases were reported of children with learning difficulties, fear and involuntary urination. An alarming case was a mother who does not allow her children to go out even to school because of her loss of another son during the con-flict. Repeatedly, they mentioned the turbulent security condition in Egypt, the frequent marches or demon-strations, as causing stress to children and their parents, and avoidance of going out on weekends.

Meeting with Beit el 3aileh,

The main Beit al 3ailah provides financial aid according to the list of Syrian families provided by the Hu-man Relief Agency. They have developed housing and job placement databases and bridging efforts. They distribute some basic needs and support other organisations working with the Syrians in outreaching and coordination efforts.

The Syrian Azhar Scholars (Mr. Ktatada),

These are a group of Syrian graduates from Al Azhar Religious School and since they have connections to different faith-based organizations and to other Egyptian entities, they have started few initiatives to help the Syrians in Egypt. They follow up on different issues related to the Syrians in Egypt besides their own scholarly work. They have for example gone all way to upper Egyptian villages where they investigated on cases of beggars who arrived there upon hearing about complaints from local residents there. They further campaigned to disseminate information on those groups as not needy and as exploitative to the Syrian situa-tion. They have gathered information on the amount of money those beggars managed to get in upper Egypt of around 80,000 L.E. Inside Cairo, these groups; the beggars, spread in Ramsis, Mohamad Nagib and are living in Hotels next to Abdeen Court. The Azhar Scholars’ Coalition went to Menia, Ban Al Alam and Safa-inya and other villages. They have stamps of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco on their passports according to the interviewee who reported having seen such stamps on some of their passports.

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Eman and Nivine from Multa2a al Irtibat (the gathering of reconnection) a group of Egyptians who are do-ing work for the Syrians:

They are serving around 18 children on a weekly basis through bringing them to the park and playing, learn-ing, drawing and talking and counselling. These volunteers managed to gather information on the conditions of the children and the issues they have with their parents and other community. It was found that half of the group who come with them are not enrolled in schools. Reasons included the fact that parents were busy with managing their lives in Egypt and some due to arriving late in the academic year, but not connected to economic conditions as such. Many found the administrative procedures to school enrolment too difficult and bureaucratic.

The children basically come from areas of Nasr City and Almaza in Helipolis. Every Saturday, they gather the children from their homes or the parents drop off the children in the park.

The main issue raised by the group is that most of the families think merely on academic attainment and help in that regard is appreciated more than playing, drawing and psycho-social support.

There are attempts to get Egyptian children to play with the Syrians yet few come and not on a regular basis.

The children are so much influenced by the war, they were always drawing gunmen and snipers, houses be-ing demolished, fighting, reinforced by watching the news from Syria all day.

They also record the importance of the POCKET MONEY, the reduction of which seems to be one of the coping strategies of the families and which is influencing children very much.

How they improve their work: They want to increase the number of the children they are in contact with, have volunteers with specific training for specialization, and contact with an entity or institution working in this area. They have limited capacity to cope with some of the emerging issues or to combine helping the children with supporting their families (such as to paying visits for these families and to check other issues),

Child labour and exploitation: One of the children who used to come to their activities, who is 12 years old, is now working in a stationery shop six days a week from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for 400 L.E a month.

They have an initiative called Help an Egyptian and Save a Syrian, which collects second hand clothing to sell in local markets, and uses the proceeds for their projects.

Souria Al Ghad (Syria of Tomorrow) Obour

This is originally a relief committee which was established by the arriving Syrians families themselves and is connected to the coordination panel of the revolution. They have a wide range of connections to donors (mainly Egyptian donors). They have developed a strategy to accommodate newly arriving families and then to move them into rental apartments. They have around 10 flats for that reason. Their relief work extends to providing basic food baskets and also support with furnishings and have a big developmental role.

They have developed a data base for all those who are in Obour and have a leading networking capacity of finding out work opportunities and communicating with the Syrian community. They have institutionalized their work and brought the Syrian community in Obour together in a remarkable way.

They managed to get work opportunities for up to 90% of the families who are registered with them. Even

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women were accommodated to working opportunities. Around 460 families are registered in this office. It seems that there are 100 more Syrian families who are not registered with them due to better financial capa-bilities and fear of political affiliation.

They also managed to get work to women from within their homes (such as embroidery and other types of hand crafts).

Their geographical coverage encompasses areas of Nahda, Assalam, Ain Shams and now New Nuzha.

They were asked about the special conditions of the people of Obour as more vulnerable than those in other areas (which was one of the findings of the Joint Needs Assessment (UNHCR and other organisations).

They have around 15 families without any income earners and thus they are trying to help them specifically with more than the normal help such as financial support, rents and other basic needs.

In general people in Obour are more vulnerable and exhausted.

Education was found to be an issue of great need. A few initiatives are happening, run by a few mothers who are helping in the afternoons providing remedial teaching.

The CEO of Syria for Tomorrow NGO:

They have been working in Relief for more than a year and a half as a committee and their implementing partners are the The Relief Committee of the Syndicate of Medicine and the Bait al 3ailah NGO. They basi-cally set up an office for registration of newcomers (their office is in Maspero). They develop the lists of the Syrians and share it with other partners (basically the Syndicate and Beit el 3aileh). They have a formal en-tity in France and are about to be a formal entity in Egypt as well. The day of their formal work commence-ment is the 17th of February.

They have also developed a strategy of conducting socio-economic studies of the registered families and have done so for around 6000 families (which corresponds to the number said by the Syndicate as they share the data).

They have recently set an office in Sixth October and another in Ain Shams. Their work extends to housing; they develop lists of people according to specializations and skills and connect them to employers (another networks for job placements).

They partner with Egyptian organisations to do projects such as campaigns for housing or other activities. They also have activities of distribution of non- food items and other issues.

Most of their projects are charity-oriented. So far the structure of the organisation is not clear and the divi-sion of the families of interventions is blurry. Institutional support is critically needed to help in structuring their activities in a systemized way. They are working on a project to improve the educational conditions of Syrian children and to introducing active learning and learning by playing activities.