The Big Heart Foundation, TBHF, a Sharjah-based global humanitarian organisation dedicated to helping people in need worldwide, is implementing three key initiatives in Egypt.

The projects, which seek to promote development across a number of sectors in the country’s capital as well as in its more rural areas, form part of the organisation’s commitment to assisting communities in need around the globe.

The Foundation has allocated US$2 million (AED7.4 million) in grants for the three projects while partnering with local bodies to facilitate their implementation. The three initiatives have been designed to improve the standards of healthcare and ensure capacity building of local talent to build social, healthcare and educational service provisions. The overall aim of the activities is to enhance the capabilities of the staff and enable them to effectively give back to their communities.

"The Big Heart Foundation seeks to provide humanitarian support that elevates the living conditions of target communities in line with the directives of H.H. Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, wife of H.H. the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of the Big Heart Foundation. TBHF is committed to supporting vulnerable individuals and providing them with education and training to increase their level of engagement in the development of their countries. The projects in Egypt form part of the foundation’s vision and mission to improve the living conditions of individuals in impoverished communities and in communities that are struggling to provide adequate essential services," said Mariam Al Hammadi, Director of TBHF.

The first two projects target institutions in Cairo, with the Abbasia Hospital for Mental Health and the National Cancer Institute, NCI, benefiting from TBHF’s grant funds. The third project, The Egypt Network for Integrated Development, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, and the Egyptian Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation, aims to enhance basic services in Upper Egypt by improving healthcare infrastructure and addressing gaps in gender equality.

The grant provided by TBHF to Egypt’s General Secretariat of Mental Health and Addiction will support the development of a Child and Adolescent Unit at Abbasia Hospital and will facilitate 20,000 psychotherapy sessions a year. A significant proportion of the funds have gone towards the establishment of a day-care centre for young people with autism, with some funds being earmarked for research and awareness campaigns.

The half-a-million cancer patients that NCI cares for annually in Cairo has led to the organisation experiencing shortages in human resources and challenges with its information technology network. TBHF has helped the hospital tackle these issues by funding a complete IT transformation drive. The current IT infrastructure of the hospital will be upgraded through targeted staffing, the provision of IT training and GAP analysis. The aim is to ultimately enable the establishment to operate as a fully digitised hospital with increased service capacity.

TBHF’s third initiative is being implemented in partnership with the UNDP in rural areas of Upper Egypt, where half the population lives under the national poverty line. The grant provided by TBHF to UNDP will go towards developing rural healthcare units, providing combined literacy and vocational training for young women, in addition to creating income generation opportunities to the various beneficiaries of the initiative.

Al Hammadi stressed that the three projects were selected after extensive studies of the social and healthcare realities in a number of Egyptian Governorates. She highlighted that the analysis was conducted in collaboration with the UNDP and other local bodies from the government and private sectors in Egypt.