Empowerment as kaleidoscope: a comprehensive empowerment approach for young women squatters in Cairo

This paper has attempted to shed some light on the concept of Empowerment and its various approaches and dynamics. This is within a particular context of the Zabbaleen garbage collectors of Egypt, who suffer from the disempowering conditions of-social exclusion, stigmatization and vulnerability- as squatters. The women of the Zabbaleen community suffer from additional harsh conditions and vulnerabilities with regards to lack of mobility, constraints on fertility, sexuality and labor. APE provided a conducive environment in which these vulnerabilities can be diminished. The range of economic, educational and health interventions were vehicles for change, which contributed to the process of transformation within the women themselves and their families. The core of this thesis is on the dynamics of interaction between the different dimensions of empowerment.