NORTH AFRICA – The Arab Republic of Egypt

  • Life expectancy in Egypt is 64 years. In the United States, the average person can expect to live to the age of 77.
  • Of every 1,000 babies born alive in Egypt, 41 will die before their fifth birthdays — compared to only 8 out of 1,000 in the United States.
  • Safe water is accessible to 97% of the people of Egypt.
  • Illiteracy is a major problem in Africa, as is the disparity between men's and women's education. In Egypt, 64% of the men and just 39% of the women are literate. In the United States, nearly all adults — 97% of both men and women — can read and write.
  • Annual per capita income in Egypt is $3,635 (real GDP per capita, ppp$). It is $34,142 in the United States.

Africare's involvement in Egypt began in 1981, with a donation of medical supplies and equipment to the Ministry of Health for use by hospitals and rural clinics in need. In 1996, Africare began assisting the nation in a large-scale endeavor to “reclaim” 28,000 acres of desert land in Wadi El Saayda — making it farmable through irrigation and soil enhancement, making it habitable through the construction of settlements and then recruiting several hundred young, previously unemployed farmers to bring the area to life. Several agencies, lead among them the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, were involved in the Wadi El Saayda project. Africare's assistance included farmer training, equipment maintenance, credit, export promotion, and more. New settlers learned the best farming techniques and how to earn income from farming. Currently, Africare has no programs in Egypt.

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