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Cairo, Egypt
May 15, 2007
öAmbassador Ricciardone's Remarks at Combating Exploitative Child Labor Through Education in Egypt Project Launch

From right: U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone; Minister of Education, Dr. Yousry El Gamal; Minister of Manpower, Ms. Aisha Abdel Hady; Minister of Social Solidarity, Dr. Ali Meselhi; Ambassador Moushira Khattab of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM);


Your Excellencies, Ministers, Representatives of International Organizations and NGOs, Representatives of Egypt’s Labor Unions and Syndicates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon.

I would like to thank all of you for your support of the project that we are launching today. Even more, I wish to thank each of you for your concern for the well-being and future of Egypt's children.

By supporting this project through a $5 million grant, the US Department of Labor aims to support the efforts of Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel Hady, and Ambassador Moushira Khattab of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) in seeking to end exploitive child labor in Egypt.

Fighting child labor is a complex mission, and I thank the many others in government and civil society that will play key roles in implementing this program and making it a success.

This program builds upon the previous work of the Government of Egypt and the NCCM in implementing programs to eliminate child labor in many of Egypt's governorates. We aim for this project to extend such work into the governorates still in need of technical cooperation by establishing child labor monitoring mechanisms, raising awareness, and providing education and training alternatives for over 10,000 working children and those at-risk for exploitative labor.

I would also like to thank our implementing partners, the World Food Program, UNICEF, and the International Labor Organization for their efforts to eradicate exploitative child labor in Egypt and around the world.

Finally, I wish the project success in achieving its goal of improving the lives of Egypt's working and at-risk children. Thank you.

You know, as the American ambassador, I live in Egypt and I am proud of that. I heard very good news recently regarding Egypt’s efforts and its success to save children’s lives. A recent report by the American-based NGO, Save the Children, recognizes Egypt as one of the best-performing countries in reducing the rate of child mortality and improving their lives. This is an excellent sign of success and you must be proud of that. Thank you very much for your attendance and thank you for supporting this project which is important for Egypt and for all of us in the entire world.