UK Charity Commission Registration Number 1120536

Project A

Providing food parcels, specialist health care, wheelchairs and walking aids.

September 2008

As world food prices rise and inflation in Egypt spirals, the need for the provision of food parcels is increasing alarmingly. During the last financial year (June 2007 - May 2008) Little Stars bought more than 1,000 food parcels from the Egyptian Food Bank for distribution in the villages of La Galta and Nage el Arab. In addition to this, monthly food parcels were provided for a Coptic Group and for individuals who had proven need. A large food parcel is given monthly to the Good Samaritan Home every month and this is sponsored by Little Stars UK supporters.

In general, the food bags contain basic intems such as rice, lentils, flour, macaroni, beans, salt, cooking oil, sugar, tea and milk powder where needed. Occasionally meat is added. The actual suprmarket price of the contents is over 100 le but we are able to buy these items at a lower cost as the items are heavily subsidised by the Egyptian Food Bank. Food is also bought, at the lowest quotation, from Egyptian wholesalers in Luxor and stored in our Distribution Centre where we make up our own bags.

We have also been able to find a good source of wheelchairs in Cairo. The wheelchairs have been made in China but are durable and of good quality. Their cost is lower than transport costs would be to get wheelchairs rom Europe to Egypt. The cost of a wheelchair, including delivery charges and brokerage, is around £40 sterling. This £40 can make an immense difference to a family whose only way of getting a large child from A to B has been over a shoulder in a fireman's lift. Little Stars has now distributed many chairs to individuals and institutions and still have twelve in stock.

Luxor has a series of small local hospitals on both sides of the River Nile and a large International Hospital on the East Bank but there is no widespread National Health Service. In general, hospital fees are very low compared with those in Europe. However, when family funds are severely limited and can be as low as £5 or £6 per month, then even the low cost can prove too much. Also, while medical procedures at the hospidal might be free for those children who are registered and in school, it is not free for those who have slipped through the net and all medicines have to be bought regardless of circumstances.

Marianna is a prime example of how things can wrong and children can need help. She was a four year old orphan who fell while playing and broke her arm early in 2007. The bone was set at the International Hospital. However, the cast was placed over an open wound which then became severely infected. She was taken to a general hospital in Cairo for treatment but all they did was reset and re-plaster the arm and send her back to Luxor. Before long pus was seen seeping from the plaster cast and it was obvious that Marianna was a real trouble as the arm had become gangrenous. The only option locally was to amputate the arm. However, luckily, Marianna was sent back to Cairo where a specialist hospital said they could save the arm but that the cost of the treatment and the operation would be in the region of £2,000. (20,000 le). The money was not available.

In March 2008 Little Stars was asked to help a 12 year old boy who had a thyroid problem. The boy, who we will refer to as Ahmed, weighed twelve stones and had seriously deformed legs. In February, Little Stars paid the cost of Ahmed and his family to go to Cairo and stay in a hospital where he could see a specialist. A whole series of tests were done to see if the thyroid problem could be solved and to asses the extent of the damage to his legs. Ahmed and his family stayed in Cairo for two weeks and it was decided that surgery could only be undertaken if Ahmed lost a lot of his excessive weight. It is now up to Ahmed’s family to make sure that he does as the doctors ordered before we proceed further with his treatment.

Little Stars has learned of a group called Society for Surgery which works through a link with Egypt and the UK and we made a donation to them. We are investigating whether we can help more children by supporting this existing group rather than by “going it alone” with individual cases.

Please help us build up the Trust Fund so that we can offer help of all kinds when and where it is desperately needed.