When Iman Bibars visited Chicago for a day, her goal was to learn how some of Chicago`s community organizers work with the city`s ”fourth world.” ”That`s the `world` of people in developed countries who live like people in Third World countries,” Bibars explained. ”It`s a common term among those who work with people in poverty.”
Bibars, 31, is a project manager for Catholic Relief Services in Egypt. CRS was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and disadvantaged around the world.
Today, the agency works in 74 countries to strengthen indigenous organizations, particularly Catholic organizations, so they can better respond to the emergency and development needs of their communities.
In her position as manager of a special CRS project, Bibars has extended the agency`s work beyond the traditional boundaries of the close-knit Egyptian Catholic community. Through the Cairo program she developed in 1987, the Catholic Church has become involved in helping the poor in the community, regardless of religion. Bibars has bachelor`s and master`s degrees in political science from the American University of Cairo, Egypt.
During her Chicago visit in September, Bibars talked with some of the city`s most energetic and successful community organizers.
Her first meeting was with Mary Heidkamp, director of the Campaign for Human Development for the Archdiocese of Chicago, a U.S. bishops` education action program that funds programs for low-income, worker-owned and -managed business ventures. Bibars noted similarities but also vast differences between her work in Cairo and that of Heidkamp.
”We do not have the number of volunteers available that you have,”
Bibars told Heidkamp. ”The people who could really help, who have the expertise, are working people who cannot afford to spend the time
volunteering.”
Both women spoke of the need for leadership training within groups that supervise and steer the funded projects. ”That is one of our biggest problems,” Bibars said. ”The leaders of the grass-roots organizations we are legally required to work through are untrained, unskilled volunteers.”
Before coming to Chicago, Bibars was in Baltimore at the annual meeting of the CRS Office of Program and Planning. She presented plans and a budget for two new projects designed to help impoverished Egyptian women in rural and urban communities. It is the first time CRS, which is the fifth-largest charity in the U.S., distributing more than $220 million annually, has targeted a program for women in Cairo.
”The projects are loan programs for widows, divorcees-heads of households- and women whose husbands are alcoholics or do not support their families. These are small loans, maybe 150 Egyptian pounds, or $30 to $50, at the beginning. It will enable these women to be involved in animal husbandry or to buy fabrics or foods that they can sell to become traders.
”We work with counterparts, existing grass-roots organizations, to train the women in home budgeting, repaying their loans and saving. The more each person saves from their income, the larger the next loan can be. The second year of the project, the women will establish their own lending entity with their saved funds.”
After meeting with Heidkamp, Bibars visited Nina & Friends, a seasonal gifts company at 2454 W. Harrison St. that receives some of its funding from the Campaign for Human Development. There, she met with Dolores Mudd and Nina Merrill, president and secretary, respectively, of Nina & Friends. The company was named for Merrill, who first helped organize the company in 1989. Nina & Friends hires area residents on a seasonal basis to assemble and ship fruit and gift baskets.
Also at the meeting was Jim McKeown, executive director of Partnership for the Common Good, the volunteer umbrella organization that sponsors and seeks funding for five major programs, including Nina & Friends, in the gang- and crime-ridden West Side neighborhood. According to McKeown, 60 percent to 70 percent of the neighborhood`s residents are on public aid. About 50 percent of the residents live in public housing.
Bibars sat with Merrill, Mudd and McKeown at a well-worn table, in a room furnished with industrial shelving, second- or third-hand desks, mismatched file cabinets, peeling walls and stained wood floors.
”This is what I`d like to show the boards we work with,” Bibars said excitedly. ”It`s not so important to have the niceties. They will come in time. The important thing is to get the operation going, moving. To get started.”
McKeown and Bibars compared notes on advisory boards. ”Many of our board members are entrepreneurs,” McKeown said. ”This kind of person knows how to do each step along the way to a business or project. Whereas the businessperson may only see the risk involved. Or the final result.”
Bibars said: ”We need to look for entrepreneurs from the counterparts we work with for our guidance boards. Most of the people on the boards are businessmen who tell us `it`s too risky` or `women can`t do that.` ”
In the male-dominated Egyptian society, the latter reasoning keeps women in impoverished conditions, according to Bibars.
”That`s why we have to begin our programs with widows and divorcees,”
Bibars said. ”The men have sympathy for these powerless women. They will let them come to meetings and will allow them to have loans.”
From Chicago`s West Side, Bibars traveled to the Howard Area Community Center at 7638 N. Paulina St. Here she met with local representatives of women`s organization, the Association of Development and Enhancement of Women, of which Bibars is a member. The Cairo-based group is made up of professional Egyptian women who seek funding for and organize programs to help low-income women.
Karen Andes, director of the Howard Center`s Community Health program, was particularly interested in a health education and sanitation project of ADEW.
”We are teaching village women not to throw the garbage and water in the streets,” Bibars said. ”In many villages there now are tanks for used water and garbage trucks. Doctors are working with youth groups and visiting each home to teach people about the importance of cleaning and sanitation.
”The next plan is to expand the project. Fifteen more villages soon will have water tanks. In many villages there are 5,000 to 10,000 people, no sewers and only public water taps.”
In the evening, Pushpika Freitas, executive director of MarketPlace:
Handwork of India, introduced Bibars to members of the staff of Fourth World, a shop at 3453 N. Southport St. that specializes in handcrafted products from Chicago and around the world. It is a project of Uptown Hull House Economic Development Unit.
Bibars was exhausted. Yet she once again told her story of development and help for poor women in Egypt. Bibars was asked what was the most discouraging and hopeful aspects of her work. Heads nodded when the answer to the most discouraging was ”headquarters and government restrictions.
”The most hopeful part is when you see how willing people are to commit themselves, how they change and how they help each other.” Everyone at the table smiled in agreement.
For more information about Catholic Relief Services, contact Jim Burke, Chicago Archdiocese director, 155 E. Superior St., Chicago, Ill., 60611;
312-751-8390.
