Maat for peace, Development and Human Rights concluded yesterday the community committee meetings for the Integrated Protection for the Families of Prisoners and Detainees (Integration and Rehabilitation) project.
The project is implemented in Cairo and Giza governorates in the following areas: (Imbaba, Bulaq El-Dakror, Atfeeh, Dar El Salaam, Khalifa, and Ma'sara).
Over the course of (6) community committees meetings and in the presence of (58) committee members in the project target areas, the discussed issues addressed the obstacles and challenges faced by the prisoners families, such as lack of friendly places to the families of prisoners and detainees, the late procedures for the social pension disbursement, the omission of the ministerial decrees of their right to exemption of school fees unless they are social security families.
The committees meetings reviewed the Ministerial Decree No. 209/2014, and praised its mention to the families of the prisoners as social security families for the first time explicitly which was considered a social and legal advancement in the families' favor.
When the committees members demanded the Minister of Social Solidarity to reconsider this decision to amend the "minimum term of imprisonment" necessary for the release of security assistance to the family of the prisoner.
As well as to reconsider the final judgment requirement to include remand prisoners and detainees, especially after the procedures law amendment with respect to the duration of remand in some of the crimes which could be very long.
The committees members submitted to Maat Foundation a number of proposals for the development of the project services in the next stages including: (establishing social, cultural and sporting clubs friendly to the families of prisoners and detainees to accommodate the children energies; to face the violence phenomenon; and to build on the gains of the camps organized by Maat Foundation; the importance of activating the principle of the best interest of the child in the case of the detention of the mother and the father and the lack of people of both parties for the receipt of the kids and therefore the importance of having a temporary place to host these children at Maat Foundation; and the need for coordination with the Ministry of Education to open community classes under the supervision of Maat Foundation in the project targeted areas to accommodate the dropouts of the prisoners children etc.

In conclusion Maat appeals to all business institutions, civil society organizations, sovereign entities, and ministries to provide support and facilitation to the families of prisoners and detainees to decrease the burden faced by these families, which imposes collective punishment of its members without distinction between the guilty and not guilty