Egyptian students at the American University in Cairo have turned their graduation project into a campaign to fight against the sexual abuse of children, which is an underreported but widely spread social problem in Egypt.

The students, who are studying at the Integrated Marketing Communications department, were asked last November to work on a social project for their graduation thesis. After many discussions, the group of seven decided to select child sexual abuse as the theme of their project. Believing that such abuse can occur within just a moment, they named their project "Lahza,” Arabic for “moment.”

"Other colleagues decided to work on various topics such as animal abuse and the rights of the disabled. But we decided to make our mission harder by tackling a topic that is considered taboo," Alia El Goan, the co-founder of Lahza, told Al-Monitor.

Lahza has several targets. It aims to raise children's awareness on what constitutes abuse and to offer support for the children who have been abused. The project also trains parents and teachers on how to detect this abuse early and how to deal with abused children.