| Purpose: |
ADEW's mandate is to empower marginalized female heads of household (FHH) economically, socially, and politically. From its inception, ADEW has distinguished itself through its commitment to promoting the rights of marginalized women and challenging traditional taboos and models. ADEW was the first Egyptial NGO to address the needs of Female Heads of Household and to identify them as a distinct target group. ADEW believes that, to improve the life situations of the poorest and most marginalized Egyptian women, it is important to work at two levels.At the grassroots level, ADEW provides direct services to female heads of household based on the twin pillars of micro-credit and legal support. ADEW's credit program empowers women to support themselves economically through small loans based on a group lending model. Through its field work, ADEW was the first NGO in Egypt to expose the problems women face when they lack legal documentation. ADEW's legal service assists women to obtain ID cards, birth certificates and other official documents which affirm their legal existence and secure their legal rights.The association has also developed an integrated set of supportive programs to better meet the diverse needs of women. These include literacy classes, a health awareness program, environmental awareness seminars, a program to build women's self-confidence, self representation abilities and enhance their skills knows as Girls' Dream. ADEW delivers a range of these services directly to some of the poorest women living in Cairo, Gharbia and Qualubyia Governorates. ADEW believes that women's needs extend beyond direct service provision. To truly improve the life situations of the poorest most marginalized women, ADEW believes it is necessary to influence and change the wider macro context in which policies and practices are embedded. Thus, to complement and draw upon its grassroots program, ADEW has developed a wide-ranging advocacy program designed to raise awareness about the problems faced by marginalized women within the public, policy and operational arena. ADEW's advocacy strategy includes national and local conferences, media campaigns and printed documentation. ADEW lobbies key policy makers and encourages the media to acknowledge the problems faced by poor female heads of household. |
| Illustrative Project: |
ADEW's 15 year old Legal Empowerment Program is a pioneer bi-pronged program that positively affected the lives of many Egyptian women and their families on multiple levels. ADEW's legal empowerment program works parallely on the grassroot level and on the advocacy level. ADEW has been expanding its legal empowerment program to serve women in Cairo, Gharbia and Qalyubia. Over the past 15 years, ADEW helped women to get 65,000 ID cards, 40,000 birth certificates and over 12,000 voting cards.ADEW has succeeded in putting the problem of women's legal documents on the national agenda.The problem has now been adopted by the National Council for Women and a growing number of governors are actively working to eradicate the problem in their areas. ADEW has also become a focal point for the issue of women's legal documents in the Arab World and, as such, has been commissioned by UNDP to lead a regional study on the problem. Moreover, ADEW's 10 years of systematic and professional lobbying succeeded in reaching Parliament and the Democratic Party. It succeeded in reaching the President who finally on September 28th 2003 commissioned the government to change the law to give all Egyptian women the right to pass their citizenship on to their children. ADEW produces numerous publications documenting women's issues. This includes a newsletter, Women's Stories, that consists of tales of life in Cairo's squatter communities, as well as flyers, posters, and cards that broadcast ADEW's activities and agitate for more gender-sensitive approaches to development and issues of public policy. |
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