Problems facing Egyptian Children

This paper presents five of the core problems facing the Egyptian children today.

Thesis

Today, the government is struggling to return Egypt to a position of economic viability. Health services and free education have deteriorated, resulting in a less healthy population where large segments are unemployable. A per ca income of A per c a income of $3,900 places Egypt 146th in world incomes. Some 32 percent of the population is involved in agriculture, much of it subsistence. Nearly 10 percent (9.5 percent) of the work force is unemployed. One-fifth of Egyptians live in poverty, and in some areas as many as 58 percent are severely impoverished.

Discussion

Egypt is one of the oldest civilizations in the world and has the largest population (78,887,007) of all Arab countries. Today, the government is struggling to return Egypt to a position of economic viability (Sholkamy, 42). Health services and free education have deteriorated, resulting in a less healthy population where large segments are unemployable. A per ca income of A per c a income of $3,900 places Egypt 146th in world incomes. Some 32 percent of the population is involved in agriculture, much of it subsistence. Nearly 10 percent (9.5 percent) of the work force is unemployed. One-fifth of Egyptians live in poverty, and in some areas as many as 58 percent are severely impoverished. Three percent of Egyptians live on less than $1 a day.estimates place the number of Egyptians outside the healthcare system because of residency in informal areas at 48 million. In Cairo, around two million people live in squatter settlements or slums. It is believed that some 12 million Egyptians live in shacks, garages, mosques, and under staircases. Other impoverished Egyptians have taken up residency in the small one- and two-room houses built in cemeteries for temporary use by families visiting the dead (Bayat, 26). The top 10 percent of the population claims a fourth of all resources while the bottom 10 percent share only 4.4 percent. The United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Report ranks Egypt 111th in the world in overall quality of life issues.

While health insurance is readily available to more affluent Egyptians, it is beyond the reach of many Egyptians, and the government has not been able to breech this divide. There is a major problem with the quality of healthcare received by poor Egyptians. Three percent of total government expenditures are directed toward healthcare. The government designates 5.8 percent of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for healthcare, and $235 (international dollars) per capita are expended in this area. Government funding provides 42.6 percent of all health-care funding; and 27.1 percent of that total is earmarked for social security, which provides monthly allowances to orphans, divorced individuals, the elderly, and the disabled. The private sector provides 57.4 of all healthcare expenditures, and 93.2 percent of private spending is out of pocket. There are 0.54 physicians, 2.00 nurses, 0.14 dentists, and 0.10 pharmacists per 1,000/population in Egypt (Bibars, 89).

Ranking in the mid-range on life ...