Egypt

Jesuit and Brothers Association for Development ALIVE Associate Magdi Asham Education Sector Director egypt@livingvalues.net   Tel: +2012 3911776 Fax: +2086 2361456

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The first Living Values Educational Program (LVEP) Educators' Training that took place in Egypt was held in Alexandria in January 2000, hosted by the Jesuit Fathers. Since then, the program's activities in Egypt have steadily increased.

Each year, a number of Educators Trainings take place in schools and educational Institutes upon their request. Follow-up meetings also take place for Educators that apply the living values activities with children.

In 2003, a comprehensive Train-the-Trainer (TTT) program has taken place with 15 carefully selected educators and educational psychologists. The aim was to prepare a team of LVEP trainers in Egypt in order to accommodate the unfulfilled schools requests for LVEP training. The TTT was sponsored by the Jesuits and Brothers Association for Development in El-Menia. Since then, those trainers co-trained in many of the trainings that took place. The Jesuit and Brothers Association has also committed itself to host a once-a-year Educators training in which Educators from several Educational Institutes can attend.

From July 2006 till now, several educators training have taken place for the staff of some schools as well as development associations working in the field of education. Educators from Sadat Language School, Notre Dame Schools across Egypt, Al-Hoda Language School, schools of Upper Egypt Association, Coptic of Evangelican Organization for Social Services, Lekaa Association, Key of Life Association, Nahdet Misr Association, and from 10 public schools in 5 villages of El-Menia within the "Upgrading Training and Educational Skills" of the Jesuit and Brothers Association, were all trained to use the program with children of different age groups.

This year, LVEP was presented in the Seventh Annual Educational Conference of the Advance Society that took place in the British School in Cairo in March 2007. The Conference was organized by the Learning Resource Center and sponsored by several bodies including the British Council and the Cairo Office of UNESCO. The Conference focused on effective educational tools and techniques for children with learning disabilities. LVEP methodology will be again presented in iEarn Conference in July 2007.

LVEP is now seen in Egypt as a valuable program. This is resulting in more trainings being requested and more trainers preparing themselves to fulfill the increasing demand.

Number of Sites Using Living Values Education 
Total number of sites   19

Breakdown and description:

• Sadat Language School.
• Al-Hoda Language School.
• Learning Resource Center for people who has learning difficulties, developmental disorder and behavior problem.
• The American University in Cairo Summer School – Cairo.
• Jesuit school in El-Menia - El-Menia.
• Saint Joseph School in El-Minia.
• Upper Egypt Association Schools.
• 10 schools in 5 villages around El-Menia, as part of a project for the development of educational and learning skills for communities in remote villages which is being implemented by the Jesuits and Brothers Association for Development and funded by the Swiss Fund in Egypt.
• Shooting Club children activities.
• Enlightenment Foundation children activities.

Impact 

One teacher in El-Menia explained how one day she had to leave her class of primary level children unattended for sometime; as she was walking back to the class, she expected to hear a lot of noise but to her surprise there was no sound coming from the class. When she reached the class, she found that one of the students was standing and conducting a guided relaxation/focusing exercise for the rest of the class while all the other students were quiet and calm and enjoying the experience.

Another teacher stated that children in her school quickly learned the conflict resolution steps and are now applying them very effectively; she has noticed a reduction in level of conflicts among students.

One teacher stated that a girl in her class who used to have the highest record of absence in previous years, recorded the highest rate of attendance after applying the living values activities with the children in school. Another student was on the verge of leaving the school due to his poor educational performance, became attentive in class and scored better academic results in school after applying the living values program.

Another student stole 5 Egyptian pounds from the bag of her teacher. Next day, the teacher applied a living values lesson on honesty. After the class, the teacher found the student left the 5 Egyptian pounds beside her bag.

Several teachers have stated that LVEP has helped them personally to discover their own inner values and self-worth and to have better relationships with the children as well as with their colleagues.