We wanted to give them that option. A lot has changed since its 1988 founding by a group of Egyptian businessmen and an American. Back then, there was a solitary boys-only centre in Madinet Nasr. The various centres provide medical and psychological care for the boys. And now, the society has begun to take in a few girls.
Girls are generally more difficult to deal with.
And there are much fewer of them. Ashraf Abdel-Moneim, the director of the Sayeda Zeinab centre, agrees. It's harder to lure them away. The boys, however, are another story. Scruffy little Mustafa said he came to the Sayeda Zeinab day-care centre without a second thought.