Youth LEAD Project

The Youth LEAD Project is a program of St. Andrew’s Refugee Services that provides leadership, education and access to development for refugee youth in Cairo, Egypt. Our objective is to reduce and prevent violence and crime in the refugee community by investing in youth through participatory, demand-driven programming in the form of:

(1) development of safe spaces designed and operated in cooperation with youth; (2) access to certificate bearing academic and skill building programs matched to labor market demands in Cairo and Sudan; (3) promotion of inter-personal conflict resolution and peer communication by offering specialized psycho-social services capitalizing upon the existing appreciation for hip-hop culture and sports; (4) information sharing regarding other programs and opportunities available to refugees in Cairo; and (4) programming and training to develop positive leadership skills and income generation activities.

LEAD is currently operating centers in Ain Shams, Nasr City (Hay el Ashr), and Hadeyek el Maadi and is expanding into Abbasiyya in November 2009, and into women’s programming and centers in January 2010 with a center in Irba’a wa Nuss. Centers offer tutoring, English classes, creative art courses, and structured free time activities in addition to basketball and football at local sports clubs.