BibleLands is hoping to raise money to support women and girls living in southern Egypt without basic rights.

The charity, which supports people in the Middle East, says there are thousands of women and girls who cannot access education or public healthcare and who do not hold political or legal rights because they were not registered at birth.

BibleLands says these are the women of Egypt who “do not exist” and has produced a challenging appeal leaflet with the slogan “How can you help me when I don’t exist?”.

Funds raised will go towards projects helping 420 impoverished families living in villages in northern and southern Dyabia.

The projects, which is run locally by the Dutch-based NGO Development of Upper Egypt Trust, aims to break the cycle of poverty through programmes tackling education, health, water quality and income generation.

The region was recently visited by Jeremy Moodey, chief executive of BibleLands,who expressed his shock at the extent of the poverty.

"Of all the areas in the Middle East where we work, the poverty here was the greatest I have seen,” he said.

“The plight of the children is particularly severe - no wonder a recent UNICEF study reported that nearly half of Egypt’s under 18-year-olds live on less than £1.40 a day.

“Our Christian partners in Egypt are leading the fight against such poverty, and BibleLands is proud to support them in this work."