Freedom is coming Wadi Natroun, Egypt October 2003

I arrived at length at Cairo, mother of cities and seat of pharaoh the tyrant, boundless in multitude of buildings , peerless in beauty and splendour, the meeting place of comer and goer, the halting place of feeble and mighty whose throngs surge as waves of the sea

Ibn Battuta 

All but 4% of Egypt is desert and the remaining land that is largely fertilised by the Nile, is overcrowded with a population of 63 million. Bedouin, Orthodox, Arab, Turkic, Nubian, spiced with Greek, Armenian, Jewish, Kurdish and Albanian. The cheapest commodity is labour.  

94% are Sunni Muslim. But there is a large Christian community of some 5-7million Copts with other minority religious groups: Protestants, Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox, as well as Jews and Shia Muslims.  

Cairo, a city of 17million, is one of the world’s Mega Cities. The illiteracy rate is high (over 50%, over 10 years old); poverty is widespread and the typical diet is inadequate. Yet it is safe to walk the streets, violent crime is uncommon. But a sense of humour is most vital in this bureaucratic country of hard bargainers. 

Drug statistics are hard to come by. 'Narcotics rife on University Campuses', according to the Egyptian Gazette (Sun Oct 1). Marijuana in its various forms notably Bhang (a sort of hemp tea) is used in Cairo, Helwan and in Shams Universities. The Police Museum in the Citadel has mounds of confiscated narcotics.

One of the most common sights is the ‘sheesha’, a turkish hookah, with mixtures of apple and honey sweetened tobacco being sucked through a tube that runs through a water filter (hubble bubble). 

FREEDOM CENTRE 

Freedom, oh Freedom Freedom is coming 
oh Yes it is Freedom is coming

Halfway along the road from Cairo to Alexandria is Wadi Natroun, site of the Freedom Centre, This is where they take many of Egypt’s addicts. Run by Dr Ehab el Kharrat, MD, PhD (CMS part supported his studies at Cantab.). He describes himself as ‘Ehab the Arab in Rehab’

I was visiting the centre to teach on the 5 weeks ISAACS addictions counselling course.
CMS supported a Russian speaking Nigerian Doctor working in Tajikistan to attend the course. He has shared how the course has multiplied experience and knowledge and output. People have started their own centres as a result of the training.

I was only there for 3 days doing 2 workshops on the Rehabilitation Process and using Appreciative Enquiry in Project planning. Ours was a mixed group, including Julian & Shaheen from Pakistan and Vladimir from Kiev all supported by CMS. Others came form Kenya, Nigeria, S Africa, Egypt Switzerland, Philippines and UK. They were all on the course to help set up their own programmes in their own countries.











From your own correspondent
October 2003