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Our impact, their stories

“I didn’t have a life, but now I feel strong”

An ILO-US-funded project brings financial independence to Egyptian women who used to stay at home and were dependent on their families.

Feature | 11 October 2016
CAIRO (ILO News) – Randa is a 36 year-old woman from the Cairo area who lived in poverty for many years. As an unmarried woman, she was financially dependent on her brother who did not want her to leave the house to work.

“Day after day, I just sat at home and my life consisted of watching TV, eating and sleeping,” she recalled.

One day, one of her friends told her about the possibility of joining an ILO training for employment programme and working in a textile factory.

The prospect of becoming financially independent was very tempting for Randa and she decided to give it a try.

Months later, she certainly does not have any regrets. The training she received and the first pay check she earned as an employee at Tie, a company producing sportswear for international brands, completely changed her existence.

“I didn’t have a life, but now I feel strong,” she said proudly.

Randa is one of the 16,500 women who have benefited from the project “Creating a Conducive Environment for Effective Recognition and Implementation of Women’s Fundamental principles and Rights at Work in Egypt” supported by the US State Department in the Greater Cairo and Sharquia Governorate.

Starting with the basics

“There was a need to start with the basics since many women have a low education level and never had a job in the formal sector,” explained Christine Hofmann, the ILO Skills Development Specialist at the ILO Cairo office.

So the project first offers a one week off-the-job training session on essential skills. For example, participating women learn the proper attitude towards work, how to behave in a team, how to communicate on different hierarchy levels and how to claim their rights at work. This part is provided by the ILO and two implementing agencies.

The off-the-job training is followed by an on-the-job training phase that lasts over a one to three months period in either a textile or food processing company. Women learn job-specific skills and are introduced to the different machines, educated on safety issues and informed about the whole production cycle. The human resources department of the companies are in charge of that part.

To ensure decent and sustained employment, implementing agencies signed an agreement with the companies in which they committed to issuing a renewable contract, to pay a $40 salary during the training period and a minimum monthly wage of around $110 upon completion of the training. They were also covered under a group insurance during the training period.

Regular monitoring visits to the factories are conducted involving supervisors but also the women themselves, providing important information on working conditions in the workplace.

Companies involved in the programme are very happy about this opportunity to hire more trained staff.

“The women hired through the project have learned to cope with difficulties, are more committed and follow instructions better. They really apply the soft skills they learned, especially the communication skills,” said Ms Rabab, human resources manager at Tie.

Limiting drop-out rates

“Convincing the factories is the simplest part, they are always in need of labour, the most difficult thing is to reach and retain the women,” added Rehab Saad, project coordinator of FORTE, the implementing agency of the training for employment scheme in textile.

The reason for this is that the drop-out rates of employees in textile companies was very high when the project was launched. This was due to the fact some women were eligible for a conditional cash transfer or charity money and thus preferred to stay at home rather than working in a factory. Others dropped out as soon as they got married.

To limit the number of drop-outs, specific strategies were implemented, including the provision of free lunch, free transport and child care facilities.

But even more importantly, instead of approaching women through third parties such as NGOs or government registries, beneficiaries are now selected by talking directly to them to make sure those benefiting from the programme are also the ones that are most in need of employment.

40 year-old Asma, a mother of two children, also living in the Greater Cairo area, is one of them.

“After my divorce 11 years ago, I was completely dependent on my brother. He was against my employment in the textile factory. But thanks to the communication training, I could convince him that this is good for me and my family,” she explained.

Skills mismatch

This project specifically targeting women is a good example of activities developed by the ILO to boost employability of young men and women in Egypt."

Peter Van Rooij, Director of the ILO Cairo office
“The economic recession that hit Egypt after the political changes that occurred since 2011 particularly hit categories such as youth and women, partly because of skills mismatch. We are working together with authorities, workers and employers’ organizations to bring much needed changes. This project specifically targeting women is a good example of activities developed by the ILO to boost employability of young men and women in Egypt,” said Peter Van Rooij, Director of the ILO Cairo office.

Since she finished her training, Randa developed her leadership and communication skills, which enabled her to be more open. She now enjoys talking and engaging with other people. She gives regular feedback to the human resources manager of her company on how to improve the programme. She feels strong and empowered. She even takes computer courses on her own and no longer worries that her brother is not talking to her.

“Working in a factory is nothing bad. On the contrary, it leads to financial independence”, she concluded.