Balady Organization for Community Development

Category: Local Organization
Target groups: Women, children, and young girls
Main field: Social and economic empowerment
Setting: Urban and rural
Year founded: 2011
The organization aims to advance society socially, educationally, and culturally, through focusing on women's issues, especially in Upper Egyptian society, where women have long been denied their basic rights. The association collaborates with partner organizations and international associations in order to carry out campaigns and projects.


Main Activity:

Seminars, conferences, handicraft training, roundtables with policymakers and community leaders, publications and brochures, surveys

Ongoing projects

  • Say No to the Employment of Young Girls (The Green Girl), in collaboration with Plan International - Egypt
  • Employing youth in cleaning campaigns
  • An Educated Village project, with Save the Children - Egypt

Past projects

  • Women empowerment project: the project produced campaigns that lasted over two years, tackling various topics pertaining to women, especially women who live in Upper Egypt. The project was held in collaboration with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Jordanian Center for Civic Education.
  • Innovative activities that differed from traditional Upper Egyptian culture
  •  A project that raised women's awareness of various health-related topics. The project lasted for a whole year, targeting 2,000 families and employing a large number of young women.
  • An initiative, held in collaboration with the Fund for Global Human Rights, that supported the community participation for girls and emphasizing the importance of their roles
  • The Upper Egyptian Women Speak Out Program, in collaboration with the In Good Company Organization
  • Say No to the Employment of Young Girls, held in collaboration with Plan International Egypt
  • Skill development training courses and handicraft training courses for the economic empowerment of families. These courses helped keep girls in school and prevented them from being subjected to sexual and psychological abuse through work.
  • Good nutrition awareness, in collaboration with the Relief and Emergency Foundation
  • Youth employment project, with the Social Development Fund

Future projects

  • Economic empowerment for women in certain villages
  • Loom-weaving workshop for teaching young women how to make handicrafts
  • Formulating a social committee to defend Upper Egyptian women's rights