CAIRO — In an effort to address the worsening plight of Egypt’s street children, the Egyptian government launched the "Homeless Children" initiative on April 8 to accommodate 10,000 street children.

The government, represented by the Ministry of Social Solidarity, also announced that it is working on a program called “Takaful and Karama” ("Solidarity and Dignity"), which gives cash payments to families in order to help them take their runaway children back in.

The “Homeless Children” initiative is implemented by the Ministry of Social Solidarity in collaboration with the Tahya Misr Fund (Long Live Egypt). This initiative of 164 million Egyptian pounds (around $9 million) is set to distribute 17 mobile units in 10 governorates where the phenomenon of street children is most prevalent, such as Cairo, Giza and Alexandria.

Hazem al-Mallah, the initiative’s media officer at the Ministry of Social Solidarity, told Al-Monitor, “The mobile units are dispatched in the streets of the governorates to attract homeless children and provide them with emergency services such as food and health care. The units also aim to gain these children’s trust in order to refer them to the competent authorities, such as public care homes. The authorities will provide identity papers to these children and try to reunite them with their families or place them in care homes under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Social Solidarity.”