The World Food Program (WFP) and the Manpower Ministry signed on Monday a memo of understanding to fight child labor and improve access to education for children who are at risk of entering the labor market.

The Manpower Ministry is one of the three governmental partners in the EU-financed program aiming at fighting all forms of child labor.

Under the memo, the Manpower Ministry will be responsible for preparing and maintaining a program to monitor the implementation of the project in the different governorates and those benefiting from it.

The four-year project will benefit up to 100,000 children each year, mostly girls, who are at risk of engaging in child labor.

The project will be rolled out in 16 governorates, mostly in Upper Egypt, with children receiving a daily snack at school in the form of fortified date bars to help reduce short-term hunger and provide 25 percent of their daily required nutritional needs.

In addition, up to 400,000 family members whose children maintain their attendance in community schools will receive a monthly take-home food ration that compensates for the wage that a child would earn if they were sent out to work instead of going to school.

The WFP, which has been operating in Egypt since 1963, will also be supporting some 50,000 households, particularly mothers, to start income generating activities that will help keep their children in class.

A 2010 study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics suggested that 13 percent of Egypt’s school-age population have dropped out of school to engage in labor.

Sources: MENA