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Success Story
Students from the
Southern Red Sea
region learn the
hospitality trade
Training Rural Students For Success
Photo: Rasha El Naggar
Students participate in a hotel services
education program.
“The training at the hotel
school means a lot to me.
I now have another dream
than to become a housewife.
I am now responsible for
myself and my future,”
said Amna Mohamed Awad
Hussein, a student at the
USAID-funded school
Amna Mohamed Awad Hussein, a fifteen-year-old from Shalatin
in the south of Egypt gained a new perspective on a life and a
new set of skills when she attended a USAID funded school for
tourism service workers.
“Our life is very simple,” Amna said. “Most people are poor.
This school has changed me a lot. When I went to school in
my home town, my dreams were very simple. I had no goals to
achieve. There I had the feeling that I don’t have a future at all.”
Amna and 24 other students between the ages of 14 and 16
from the Southern Red Sea region are completing their third
and fi nal year of training in tourism services at the Ägyptisch–
Deutsche Hotelfachschule Paul Rahn School in El-Gouna. The
students are able to attend the school because they received
scholarships from USAID. One of the main goals of the USAID
project is to help reduce unemployment by promoting genderbalanced,
tourism-based jobs for local people living in rural
areas that are being developed into tourist destinations.
Students in the program receive a combination of theoretical
classes and practical training in participating hotels. When
they have successfully completed the course, students will be
offered work contracts with hotels and resorts in the region. The
total aggregate of their income over the years, which will flow
back into the local tribes’ economies, could amount to several
hundred thousand dollars. This generated income will boost the
local economy and improve the lives of the students.
In addition to providing employment and improving the
livelihoods of the students, the program also bridges the
socioeconomic divide between host communities and the
expanding tourism industry, and builds a network of tourism and
hospitality organizations willing to provide private sponsorship of
tourism education for local residents.
“The training at the hotel school means a lot to me,” said Amna.
“I now have another dream than to become a housewife. I am
now responsible for myself and my future.”
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