Flair Magazine Manfoods-McDonald’s Egypt has been always deemed as one of the first private sector companies to pay unprecedented and special attention to education and early childhood development. Consequently, the company took it upon itself to join hands with the Ministry of Social Solidarity, together with Kheir We Baraka NGO, to conduct The Community Nurseries Development Project. In fact, this collaboration has led to the successful completion of this project, which entails developing and rehabilitating 165 classrooms in 51 nurseries, with a total joint investment of EGP15M. The Community Nurseries Development Project is part of the National Early Childhood Development initiative lead by the government.
Following the completion of this reputable project, a celebratory event took place with the honorable presence of Dr. Nevine Al Kabbaj, Minister of Social Solidarity, Mr. Alaa Fathi, General Manager of Manfoods-McDonald’s Egypt, along with Mrs. Mima Ghabbour, Vice-Chairman of Kheir We Baraka NGO.
It is noteworthy that the National Early Childhood Development Program’s ultimate objective is to provide the necessary health and educational care for children, so as to improve their overall behavior and personality, as well as develop their capabilities and skills. Thus, McDonald’s Egypt affiliated with distinctive NGOs, in the less privileged areas of Cairo, to be able to accomplish this objective. Moreover, the program trains people who are in charge of taking care of children, and it raises awareness about the significance of preschool education.
In this context, Dr. Nevine Al Kabbaj, Minister of Social Solidarity elucidated, “Investing in people has always been the slogan of the Ministry of Social Solidarity. Thus the ministry invests in developmental projects that have real impact on people’s lives, such as the Community Nurseries Development Project, that aims at improving the children’s mental abilities at a young age, while enabling them to discover and explore their potential. Meanwhile, the early intervention could be an opportunity for the detection of any health or cognitive difficulties the child might be suffering from.
The Minister of Social Solidarity expressed her gratitude to Manfoods-McDonald’s Egypt and Kheir We Baraka NGO for their efforts in developing the community nurseries, expressing her hope for continuing their efforts to develop more nurseries nationwide.
Speaking of the collaboration, Alaa Fathi, General Manager of Manfoods-McDonald’s Egypt, commented, “We cannot be prouder of our fruitful cooperation with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Kheir We Baraka. This synergy confirms our company’s relentless endeavors and its leadership in achieving sustainable development over the past 26 years. This project embodies Manfoods-McDonald Egypt’s strategy, which revolves around applying the principles of social responsibility for the sake of developing the communities in which we operate. We have always paid special attention to the Egyptian children and to the initiatives that improve their lives.”
Fathi added, “Through this project, we were able to reach more than 2,400 families, and succeeded in creating a healthy educational environment for the Egyptian child. This was actually attained by designing activities that contribute to developing their skills from the age of one day to 4 years, and stimulates their creativity, via the usage of interactive, meaningful and innovative educational methods and approaches.”
In addition to that, the curricula of the nurseries abide by local and international quality standards which leads to securing robust mental, psychological, physical, and social development for the child. Nevertheless, the project was not confined to children merely, as it also included training and rehabilitating 365 facilitators, in order to become well-acquainted with the process of the child’s development in the nursery stage. This will, undeniably, help in identifying the proper methods of dealing with children of dissimilar nature, backgrounds, and behaviors. The program also trains those facilitators on how to deal with children with special needs that get enrolled in the nurseries. This specific part of the project, comes in line with the Ministry of Social Solidarity’s tendency to integrate them into society and develop their capabilities.
“This project is an important achievement for Kheir We Baraka, as it certainly reflects the success of the collaboration that took part between the Ministry of Social Solidarity, Manfoods- McDonald’s Egypt, and our association,” said Nevine Al Ibrashi, Founder and Chairman of “Kheir We Baraka” NGO. She then added, “Our main goal is to achieve sustainability, as well as create a healthy environment for the Egyptian child. For this noble purpose, we conducted training and awareness sessions, technical support visits, and guidance for facilitators, teachers, mothers, and for all those dealing with children and even for those in charge of managing NGOs.”
Al Ibrashi concluded her words by saying, “In our implementation plan, we included specialized experts such as Caritas Egypt, and professors from the Faculty of Education for Early Childhood at Alexandria University, in order to stimulate the capacities of service providers and beneficiaries in several areas including; the child development’s psychology, positive parenting, learning and development outcomes, nutrition, children’s health, first aid, play-based learning, and a lot more.”
It’s worth mentioning that Manfoods-McDonald’s Egypt has been exerting excessive effort to improve the environment surrounding the Egyptian child for the past 26 years. One of the company’s important initiatives was “Ezbet Khairallah” Development Project that started in 2009. This propitious project aimed to develop the unprivileged areas in order to enhance the living conditions for the people of Ezbet Khairallah and provide educational support for their children. In addition to other initiatives to support children with special needs, as well as orphans in various governorates, and finally spread awareness about autism
