Sanad explores regional cooperation opportunities to build the capacity of caregivers in the alternative care sector
Azza Abdel Hamid: Working to support community initiatives led by young care leavers
El-Hagary: The drama series “Awlad El Shams” has narrowed the distance between society and the cause of people without parental care
Cairo, March 2025:
Sanad Association for Alternative Parental Care has announced the start of cooperation with civil society organizations across the Arab world to qualify and train caregivers and workers in the field of alternative care. Dr. Mostafa Hanafy, Senior Academic Specialist at Sanad, stressed that the association shares best practices to empower alternative care workers in Arab countries and raise their competence, through its specialized training programs accredited by Pearson and The British University in Dubai. These programs have had a tangible impact on improving the quality of social protection and care for children and young people without parental care.
In the same context, Azza Abdel Hamid, Founder and Chairperson of Sanad, stressed the importance of the social and economic empowerment of care leavers through initiatives that support young people. She explained that preparations are under way to launch a regional initiative for “Inspiring Pioneers”: young people without parental care who have achieved success in their professional and personal lives, so that they can become ambassadors and role models for other young people. She added that the initiative also offers mentoring and career guidance programs and the sharing of success stories, in addition to supporting young people inside care homes or those facing challenges after leaving care.
The initiative was proposed as one of the recommendations of Sanad’s regional conference on alternative parental care, held recently over two days under the patronage of the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the Ministry of Youth and Sports, titled “The Role of Sustainable Development in Protecting and Empowering Children and Young People Without Parental Care”. The conference brought together 57 speakers from 42 institutions representing 12 Arab countries.
The conference recommended including psychological and social support programs within economic empowerment programs. It also recommended establishing a fund to support the professional empowerment of young people without parental care, whose mission would be to provide specialized scholarships and training and to work to ensure equal employment opportunities for them in the public and private sectors through an employment quota system, together with training programs that prepare them for work.
The conference also stressed the importance of building strong alternative care institutions by establishing clear legislative frameworks and developing and enforcing quality standards for care homes, as well as involving young people without parental care in setting and implementing alternative care policies and procedures. It further called for directing part of the grants to building the capacity of care homes and supporting the use of information technology, and for launching programs aimed at accrediting civil society organizations that meet sustainability and governance standards.
In response to the conference’s recommendations, the Ministry of Social Solidarity, under the patronage and in the presence of Dr. Maya Morsy, Minister of Social Solidarity, organized a workshop for graduates of social care institutions, in cooperation with Sanad, attended by 40 young men and women who have left social care institutions.
The workshop aims to improve communication between the Ministry and these young people, regularize the status of those leaving social care institutions, discuss their various issues and listen to their proposals. The Minister expressed her pleasure at the workshop and confirmed that a regular meeting will be held every three months with young people from social care institutions, along with a mechanism for communication between them and the Ministry to overcome the problems and challenges they face and to put their energy and passion to use by activating their role in developing the aftercare system.
On the importance of sustaining the quality of alternative care, Yasmin El-Hagary, Executive Director of Sanad, explained that the association’s regional conference stressed the importance of creating a network of partnerships to provide training and employment opportunities for care leavers, in addition to supporting scientific research in this field by establishing an Arab digital platform for exchanging knowledge and experience, documenting research findings and making them available to decision makers.
El-Hagary added: “The drama series Awlad El Shams, shown in the Ramadan season, sheds light on the challenges faced by young people without parental care. It supports the recommendations of Sanad’s regional conference, which stressed the importance of strengthening partnerships with the media and television drama to produce awareness campaigns that aim to change the stereotypes about people without parental care, and of training media professionals on how to cover their issues.”
Regarding social protection programs for children and young people in alternative care and aftercare, the association’s regional conference had recommended launching a national social protection program for people without parental care, whose mission would be to qualify and accredit caregivers and provide them with psychological support, and to continue supporting young people after they leave care, until the age of 24, to ensure their integration into society. The conference also stressed the importance of informing young people without parental care of their rights by creating an online portal and launching a unified card to ease their access to services, in addition to the need to provide psychological, social and financial support to the families who sponsor these children, and to launch an online platform for communicating with supporting entities.
It is worth noting that Sanad Association for Alternative Parental Care develops and assesses quality standards for all forms of alternative care. It also implements a package of diverse programs to build human capacity at different levels, including government employees, care home staff and kafala families, and provides the preparation that children and young people without parental care need for a stable life after leaving the care home. In addition, it develops procedural guides for alternative care systems.