Raed Karem, 13 years old, wakes up at the crack of dawn everyday to go to school, he and his father walk about one hour until they reach his school in Idfa; walking to school is not by choice, for there are no means of transportation to take them there.
Raed walks back after the end of every school day, he also walks to attend his private lessons, and this road he takes slowly, for he is too tired after a long exhausting day, the thing that affects his lessons.
Raed’s suffering is shared by 1,760 residents of Al-Shreifat hamlet, following Idfa village, Sohag governorate; whether they were employees, schools and university students, they all suffer from the lack of transportation that would transfer them to and from the hamlet, also the roads are dusty and unpaved. People are forced to walk long distances to reach their work or school or any errands they need to do.
It seems there is no solution in the horizon for this suffering, despite the complaints the people submitted to the government’s local administration office, and the promises made to them -especially during every parliamentary session- nothing changes. The hamlet’s residents have no choice but to walk to the nearest station in Al-Ghawanem hamlet, or rent a private car, an option that is not available to everyone.
Reaching Sohag takes about two hours: half hour on foot, in addition to taking two means of transportation.
Doha Nasser, a university student, complains of walking long distances to reach the nearest car, adding to this the financial and physical burdens.
Manal Abdulrahman was forced to enrol her daughter in the nearest school, despite it is not a good school with unqualified teachers, as for private lessons, she has to walk half an hour to reach the nearest centre.
Reaching work or school is not the only struggle here, the residents are forced to walk long distances to reach the market in order to purchase the groceries they need or find health services; there is only one health care unit in Al-Shreifat.
The hamlet has only one elementary school, to which classes for middle school students were added a year ago, whereas high school students are forced to suffer and walk the long distance outside.
“Despite my old age, I am forced to walk to buy the usual household needs, as we do not have means of transportation such as a motorcycle or a car to drive us to our destinations,” said Om Mohamed, one of the hamlet’s residents.
Mona Moahmed, a 48-years-old English teacher, believes that the lack of transportation is almost the reason behind her and her children’s lost dreams; Mona’s children used to play Karate and the training centre was in Sohag city, the thing that forced them, Monad and her five children, to walk around half an hour twice a week at least, then take a taxi to the centre, which formed a heavy financial burden on her tight budget.
Mona said that she submitted the solution to the government’s local administration which was paving the roads, but that solution collided with obtaining the lands allocated for the road, “lands’ owners refused to donate part of the lands to form the roads, and no action was taken.”
Mona wasn’t the only one crushed under her financial burdens, Asmaa Othman, a student, says that she pays 300 EGP monthly for the private transportation that takes her and her colleagues to school. Sometimes, they cannot find any car to take them and were forced to miss school.
Israa Abdulwakil, 16 years old, was forced to move to live with her relatives in Idfa village to be closer to transportation and avoid being late to school. While others were forced to ride bicycles instead of motorbikes or taking a taxi as drivers kept increasing their fares.
Ahmed Mansour, a driver in Al-Deir Al-Quibli station, comments on this, saying, “we, drivers, have a designated route we have to take, it starts from Al-Zaafrani in Al-Ghawanem hamlet, reaching Al-Hwaiti Station in Sohag city, but we do not reach as far as Al-Shreifat hamlet.”
He suggested extending the route to Al-Shreifat hamlet, providing the residents with means of transportation other than their foot.
