Cairo, December 17, 2015

Grassroots Assistance

Opening Ceremony of Upgraded Zein Abdeen Primary School in Saida Zainab Supported by Japan
　

On Thursday, December 17th 2015, Mr. Takehiro Kagawa, Ambassador of Japan to Egypt attended a ceremony to celebrate the completion of “the Project for Improvement of Primary School in Saida Zeinab, Cairo”. The project was supported by the Japan’s Grant Assistance for Grass-roots and Human Security($75,294) . Mr. Ibrahim Abdel Rady, Chairperson of the Board of Association of Popular Participation for the Development of Society, and members of Cairo Governorate, Ministry of Education, Saida Zainab Administrations also attended the ceremony.

The project has provided a comfortable, clean and safe educational environment to the school through the upgrading of school’s facility, facilities such as school buildings, yard, washrooms and furniture. Association of Popular Participation for the Development of Society was full in charge of the project implementation including the school upgrading as well as the development of systems to ensure the project’s sustainability. School Police which is formed by the selected students, School Maintenance Committee to generate resources for maintaining the facility, best class competitions, and sessions to heighten awareness of sanitation among students are a few examples among the systems the NGO introduced into the school.

At the ceremony, the Ambassador extended his gratitude to the Association and the school community for their commitments and expressed his determination to continue supporting Egypt’s proactive efforts. He mentioned that the project’s achievement is not only the improvement of school environment itself, but rather the success to raise the awareness about collaborative efforts among teachers, students and parents in order to maintain a comfortable school environment. He expressed his wishes that this project will serve as a model case and its effects will spread to other areas in the country.

The Japanese government’s assistance scheme for Grassroots and Human Security Projects is the scheme, which provides support to Non-profitable organizations and NGOs in order to improve Basic Human Needs, such as education, health, social care and environment. This scheme was launched in Egypt in 1994, and around 150 projects have been implemented to date, totaling about US$ 7 million.