Entissar al-Sisi says discussed with youth family protection program

CAIRO – 16 December 2019: Entissar al-Sisi, spouse of the Egyptian president, said on Monday she exchanged with youth, on the sidelines of the World Youth Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, visions and ideas around a national initiative aiming to protect families.

Referring to the Social Solidarity Ministry’s Mawada (Cordiality) initiative, which aims to immune families against divorce and dissociation, Entissar al-Sisi said many of the youth in the Egyptian society have “refrained” from marriage.

She affirmed that the society’s ongoing fears as a result of high divorce rates and low marriage rates are an alarming sign that requires finding actual solutions.

The third edition of the World Youth Forum kicked off on Saturday in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el Sheikh, with the participation of around 7,000 attendees from around the world, according to state’s news agency MENA. It is set to conclude on Tuesday.

In November last year, Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Waly said that the rate of divorce has hugely increased and has become a threat; thus, Mawada program aims to imitate the experiences of other countries like Malaysia where the percentage of divorce has been reduced from 35 percent to only 7 percent.

“More than 985,000 people get married every year, and 180,000 of them get divorced,” Waly said.

The minister added that Al-Azhar and the Egyptian Church have established different programs to raise the youths' awareness on how to put an end to this phenomenon.
Furthermore, Waly assured that the ministry will offer a budget from Tahya Misr (Long Live Egypt) Fund for homeless children. Waly assured that the ministry was able to reunite 985 children with their families.

The phenomenon of homeless children is one of the main social problems facing Egypt, curbing development and prosperity.