Artists Listening Brooke Shields listens to children in Egypt
WHEN SHERAIEFA MEHREZ WAS 17 SHE AND SIX SCHOOL FRIENDS DECIDED TO HELP FAMILIES OF TUBERCULOSIS VICTIMS IN CAIRO. THEY EACH GAVE 10 PAISTRES A MONTH, ABOUT A DOLLAR. "WE KNEW WE WERE FROM RICH, PRIVILEGED FAMILIES," SHE SAYS, "BUT WE WERE ALWAYS TAUGHT TO HELP OTHERS. THE MINSTRIES LAUGHED AND TOLD US IT WAS ONLY A DROP IN THE OCEAN."
For the poor crowded together in one room, tuberculosis was, indeed still is, a crippling blow. If a TB sufferer stayed at home he risked infesting the rest of his family, especially the children.
"In those days the cure took a very long time," says Mrs. Mehrez, "and the patient would always ask 'but who will take care of my children?'
We listened to their problems and understood that we would have to care for the children while the patients got better. Later on we started to educate them as well."
That was in October 1936. Mrs Mehrez and her friends founded the first children's charity in Egypt. Seventy years later they have 26 branches from Aswan to Alexandria. Their biggest centre is the Health Improvement City in Giza, which, while it lies in the shadow of the country's past, just a few minutes from the Pyramids, is looking to build a new future for those who otherwise have little or none. Every day the former Indian Army barracks provides an education for 1,400 boys and girls, 200 of whom live on the huge site, from the ages of 6-16.
The secret of their success is that they have listened to what was needed. Then they have set out to provide it. "We are still only a drop in the ocean," says Sheraiefa Mehrez, "but at least sometimes you can hear us fall."
When actress Brooke Shields visited the Health Improvement City she was surrounded by an excited crowd of children, all dressed in their very best clothes. One little girl sat on Brooke's lap, another constantly explored and stroked her hair, another demonstrated how he could count to 100 in English, while she listened to what their lives were really like. About sleeping seven to a bed in a single room, with water coming from a hole in the ground, a father who had been away from home for a year and a mother who had to work all the time to keep them all alive.
Yet not one child seemed miserable or unhappy with their lot. Instead each one looked on the bright side.
"Kids are positive about things I find hard to be positive about," says Brooke. "None of them were prepared to be negative about their life. They would say 'When my father comes home we will have music in the house again or I will be able to taste things again'. It frightens me how precocious so many of them are. I would like to give them back their childhood. We can't do that but we must not close our ears off to them. For most of us, kids are the only way we can change the future."
Brooke was in Egypt working on a documentary film for the charity campaign LISTEN. She became involved because "It was a really interesting project. What we hope to do is worldwide, positive. It was about listening to children - an innovative new approach, a way of getting people to pay attention. This is not a hard sell. I did not want to get involved in making weepies. LISTEN will be heard differently."
The intention of LISTEN is to raise more than $90 million for the world's most disadvantaged children. But in many ways money, which will all go to pre-designated children's charity projects, is secondary to the major issue. LISTEN is about listening to the needs and rights of children.
The campaign brings together film stars, music stars, dignitaries, film directors, writers and visual artists in a bid to raise awareness and money. The campaign culminates in a globally broadcast media event.
It is determined to make the world much more aware of the problems children suffer from around the world. "75% of the world's children are no better off today than they were 1,000 years ago," says Tribute Third Millennium CEO Tony Hollingsworth. "We know what the problems are. We know what the solutions are. The problem is we are not listening."
Brooke also travelled to Boulac to visit Access to Primary Education and Literature, a project supported by Save The Children to encourage primary education specifically for girls. In Egypt girls are the first to drop out of school.
After having visited the school, Brooke took Mayada, Fleurag and Asmaa to visit the Pyramids. Although they live only 25 miles from one of the world's greatest sites the girls had never seen them before. Standing in front of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, Mayada was not overawed. Instead she looked the film star full in the face, little brown eyes unwavering and started talking intently in Arabic. She had forgotten that Brooke did not understand. What she was feeling was that Brooke was listening.
