VZCZCXRO3583
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHEG #1416/01 2031438
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221438Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3254
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 001416 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/ELA AND DRL/NESCA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KDEM ECON SOCI EG
SUBJECT: USG-FUNDED SMALL BUSINESS PROJECT FOR WOMEN IN THE 
DELTA 
 
REF: A. CAIRO 1393 
     ¶B. CAIRO 443 
 
¶1.  KEY POINTS 
 
-- (U) On July 20, we visited the USG-funded kiosk project, 
which aims to provide a small business livelihood for 
low-income women in a poor, agricultural section of the Nile 
Delta Governorate of Menufiya, approximately 75 miles north 
of Cairo. 
 
-- (U) The USD 43,000 ESF grant funds the El Sadat 
Association for Social Development and Welfare to implement 
the project by constructing 20 kiosks for women who are their 
families' sole bread-winners.  The women operate the kiosks 
to sell snacks and other items to generate income. 
 
-- (U) We visited three kiosks in separate villages to 
evaluate the project and voice our support for the kiosk 
owners.  The villagers and kiosk owners were warmly 
appreciative of the USG's efforts.  The kiosks prominently 
displayed Embassy and El Sadat Association insignia. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Post's Institutions of Democracy Working Group 
provided a USD 43,000 grant out of Economic Support Funds to 
the El Sadat Association in June 2008 to implement the 
project, but the association was not able to begin its work 
until January 2009 because GOE security delayed approval. 
The grant funded the one-time provision of supplies and the 
construction of 20 kiosks for individual low-income women to 
operate as small businesses.  The grant also funds an El 
Sadat Association documentary film to record the project's 
progress.  The El Sadat Association has funded 64 other 
kiosks in Menufiya through grants from other sources.  The El 
Sadat Association also conducts training workshops for the 
kiosk owners to teach them basic business skills, and 
marketing and sales techniques. 
 
¶3. (U) Menufiya Governornate is a low-income, agricultural 
area of the Nile Delta.  The largest city in the area served 
by the El Sadat Association is Tala, population 500,000, 
which is the birthplace of former President Anwar El Sadat. 
President Mubarak was born in a nearby village.  Unemployment 
in Menufiya is high, and contacts told us that approximately 
10 young men from Tala recently drowned while trying to 
immigrate illegally to Italy to find work.  While the area 
around Tala is surrounded by lush agricultural land, young 
men often refuse to work in the fields because of the 
negative social stigma associated with farming.  According to 
contacts, young people with university degrees normally 
reject such work, and even the uneducated sometimes prefer to 
remain unemployed rather than working in agriculture.  The 
villages we visited were marked by poverty.  Few of the roads 
were paved, many of the children were barefoot, and 
unemployed young men loitered on street corners. 
 
¶4. (U) During the day, we visited 3 kiosks and spoke with the 
kiosk owners and their village neighbors who attended the 
events.  El Sadat Association Program Manager Donia El Sadat, 
a grand-niece of the late President Sadat, and her staff 
accompanied us.  At the 3 sites, El Sadat addressed crowds of 
about 100 people, praising the kiosk owners for their work 
and introducing us.  The El Sadat Association also arranged 
for a doctor to address the crowds about taking precautions 
to avoid contracting avian influenza.  At all the sites, 
poloff addressed the villagers in Arabic over a public 
address system, expressing U.S. commitment to supporting 
economic development, congratulating the kiosk owners and 
thanking the villagers for their interest in the project. 
All 3 kiosks we saw were prominently emblazoned with the 
insignia of Embassy Cairo and the El Sadat Association. 
 
¶5. (U) We visited the first kiosk in Tukh Daleka, a village 
with a population of about 30,000.  Tukh Daleka houses a 
school that serves neighboring villages.  Following our 
public comments to the villagers, we spoke briefly to the 
kiosk owner, an older woman who works to support her family 
by selling snacks from the kiosk; she expressed her 
appreciation to us.  The crowd consisted of about 20 
unemployed young men, and scores of women and children. 
 
¶6. (U) We then visited the smaller village of Ezbaa El-Aqra, 
population about 6,000, to view the second kiosk.  We 
addressed the crowd in a dusty village square while ducks, 
chickens and geese walked amidst the villagers.  The kiosk 
owner, a widow with two teenage children, thanked us publicly 
for the USG's grant, and proudly showed us her kiosk where 
she sells snacks and household items such as detergents.  Our 
 
CAIRO 00001416  002 OF 002 
 
 
next stop was at the village of Saft Gedam, population 
approximately 20,000, where the kiosk owner had set up shop 
on the village's main road leading to the nearby city of 
Tanta.  She was a young woman with two children under the age 
of three, whose husband is unemployed.  In addition to the 
snacks and household goods we saw at the other kiosks, this 
woman also sold a range of daily newspapers.  Both she and 
her husband thanked us publicly and privately for the grant. 
Tueller