Amr Othman, assistant to the Egyptian minister of social solidarity and head of the Addiction Treatment and Abuse Fund, has granted a group of recovering drug addicts loans as part of the ‘New Beginning’ initiative, and spoke to Shorouk News about the efforts to treat women suffering from drug addiction.

Othman told Shorouk News that since 2015, the Ministry of Social Solidarity has established five specialised departments nationwide to treat women from addiction.

Othman stressed the importance of establishing specialised units for females, since the consequences of drug abuse for females are very different from those for males.

Othman said that these units have succeeded in increasing the percentage of females seeking treatment through the fund’s hotline, increasing from 1.5 percent to 8 percent of the total number of applicants.

On Thursday, Othman handed checks of EGP 160,000 to a group of recovering drug addicts as part of the New Beginning initiative, which provides loans to recovering addicts to help them establish small projects.

The total value of loans that have been provided for the initiative from Nasser Social Bank have amounted to nearly EGP 2.14 million.

There is a protocol between the Addiction Treatment and Abuse Fund and Nasser Social Bank for the implementation of small and micro projects for people who have recovered from substance abuse through the addiction hotline 16023, to support community integration and to prevent relapses.