Empowering women with disabilities: Celebrating Success in Egypt
Egypt is home to 10 million Christians and hosts by far the largest concentration of Christians in the region. Despite being large, Christian communities are sometimes susceptible to social, political and economic pressures. Women experience additional challenges. These include limited access to education and employment, and high rates of sexual assault and domestic abuse. These are only exacerbated where women also have a disability. That’s why our partners at Bless set up the ‘I Can I Have a Vision’ project, working with local community organisations across Egypt to enable blind and partially sighted women to claim their place in society.
After three successful years, this project has come to an end. Between 2017 to 2020, ‘I Can I Have a Vision’ supported 434 blind and partially sighted young women. In small groups, they were matched with a sighted companion who was there to help them gain confidence in completing everyday tasks independently, and learn vocational skills.
To celebrate the successful completion of the project, we are delighted to share with you a short video so you can see the project in action, as well as hear a special message to Embrace supporters from Pope Tawadros II and Bishop Yolios of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Video courtesy of BLESS.
The testimonies of the women involved speak to the success of the project. 25-year-old Heba told us:
‘Before joining the project, it was very difficult for me to face the community and I had a shy and introverted personality, but after joining the project this year I bridged the barrier of fear. I relied on myself in housework, handcraft work, and benefited from the computer and counselling courses.
‘Now I've become a social person, I've been able to make friends with the other girls, I've gained self-confidence, I've got a role and a vision in society."
For women like Heba, the social dimension of the project has been hugely valuable. Gathering for activities like cooking, craft workshops and computer classes provided an opportunity to meet other young women with sight loss. After the outbreak of COVID, the women were given smartphones with audio technology to enable them to communicate, which they loved as it meant they could stay connected while project activities couldn’t take place in person. Information on staying safe in the pandemic was also translated into braille and circulated.
But the project expands beyond the women themselves. Parents’ expectations of what their daughters can achieve have been challenged. Before participating in the project, many had limited expectations for what their children might be able to do independently, but now they have seen how much is possible with the right support. This project also shows that initiatives to improve the lives of women and/or people with disabilities are most effective when they do not operate in isolation. For the sighted companions, getting to know women with visual impairments has enabled them to overcome their preconceptions about people with disabilities, and this will continue to have a ripple effect as they share their experiences with others.
