We were thrilled to have a conference bringing our volunteers together, from the two villages where we are currently serving, alongside with our Our Children/Awladna staff!

There were 17 volunteers from Beni Ahmed and Ashnin who joined us for a day full of joyful fellowship and fruitful training. Our 6 staff joined the time and we had we sessions about many psychological topics, as well as fun times playing games together. We also had a blessed ministry and prayer time with them. The volunteers walked away from our conference saying they were happy and blessed.

Please join us in praying for these volunteers, as well as the other volunteers who could not join. They are locals from the villages who have a heart to serve those in their own community and we are so grateful for them and the time they give to serve, and could not do this ministry with out them.

“I am Wafaa from the village of Beni Ahmed and I’m in fourth grade. I had an accident when a car passed on my right food causing a fracture in my right ankle. I had a surgery, but it got worse. We found out there is a problem with my spine, and it turned out to be a congenital defect. Before and after the surgery I didn’t feel any kinds of pain in my spine.

So, I went to a doctor and he made a splint to my foot as a kind of treatment. Our Children ministry helped me with my medical examinations, medicines and Physiotherapy sessions as recommended by doctors. Day after day I am getting better.”

Pray with us until Wafaa’s healing is complete!

One day to start a 10 months program with fathers, working on serious problems and issues from the roots up!

We were blessed with the opportunity to provide a special day event for the men/fathers in one of our sponsored villages. The event’s purpose was to address the issues we’re having in the families we serve, like domestic violence, physical abuse, and the general lack of intentional fathering. This event day is just the beginning of a 10 months program for men/fathers in collaboration with Adam Ministry, one of our KDEC church ministries.

The day started with some games as an ice breaker and then we had 2 teaching sessions.

The first was about the emotional needs for children ages 0 to 7 and how their character is affected if these needs aren’t met. This session’s goal was to help fathers understand that how they father their children from young ages can lead to long-term issues and problems—for them to understand where some of these problems they see in their older children are truly coming from how they are raised at young ages.

The second session was about the wrong or distorted patterns of thinking. Our goal was to dig deeper into cultural or generation wrong actions that continue and never get broken. The day ended with a support group—a time of sharing with one another and opening up as fathers after hearing these teachings.

Our Ministry Director, Sameeh Malek, was able to join in with one of these groups. He shares his experience, which included many surprises for him from the other men and even for himself:

“Yesterday I had the opportunity and was blessed by taking part in a small support group of men. It was really good and unexpected listening to these men sharing deep. The majority of the men are illiterate and working in very humble jobs. The duration of the support group wasn’t very long but it had a big impact on me. Everyone did “check in feelings” which was something new to them, then we started to share, and I shared myself.

My impression of the group was that we’re all under the same weaknesses as fathers and men–we all have the same challenges and needs. We’re all under the same stress despite the differences in background, culture, education and economic level. We’re all under the same suffering because we’re all humans, all sinners. I feel that there’s a very deep part of me that experienced a completely new insight in my heart and mind. The 45 min I spent in this group with people that are different than me in lots of aspects made me realize and understand that we are all the same in many ways. We all need God’s help in our lives.”

David is a child in the second grade in the village of Beni Ahmed Sharkya in the area of Minya. Since birth, he’s had a problem in the right eye (occlusion of the tear duct in the right eye). The doctor at a hospital in Cairo said that David needs cleaning of the duct “Dacryocystorhinostomy” because pus comes out from his eyes, and that makes his face very puffy.

He passed through two surgeries, but did not succeed in alleviating the pain caused by swelling of the face and his eye continues to exude pus strongly. And in this situation his condition prevented him from going to school because his face was so incredibly swollen. It was a problem of not only pain, but also that the kids in the school were making fun of him because of his appearance. This made David extremely introverted and his academic level was very low because of his physical condition.

It was a very difficult tie for the whole family, especially his parents who were watching their child suffering without adequate help. They were told that he needed a different surgery to complete fix David’s eye problem — “Implanting a pillar in the eye.” As they are very poor, they couldn’t afford the cost of the proper surgery (5,000 Egyptian Pounds) and felt so hopeless.

Our Children was able to step in, thanks to David being a sponsored child and his sponsor’s contributions, to pay for the surgery! The operation was done a month ago with great success, alleviating David’s pain and swelling.  David now goes to school and comes to literacy groups in the church and plays with his friends.  Also, his mental health is far better than before the operation–he is more cheerful and happy. Praise God!

Our ministry Director , Sameeh, visiting with David.

In the local Egyptian village of Ashnin, we were thrilled to install a community water filter. The location is at the bottom of a building our local Egyptian church partner has and is a prefect spot for local villagers to come for fresh, clean, healthy water for their families!

In addition to the health benefits, we are excited about the many opportunities for outreach and building relationships with villagers. We’re giving the local church a great resource to bridge the gap and show love to the majority! HUGE THANKS to one of our US church partners in California, Montecito Covenant Church, for providing the needed financial funds for this project.

My name is Ester, sister of William. I’m in first grade of prep school. I used to have strong headaches and blurry sight and dizziness all the time to the extent I ran into things sometimes. When I went to Our Children ministry with my brother and the workers saw what’s happening to me, they took me to an Ophthalmologist because everybody thought it was an eyesight problem.  But when they took me there, the doctor said my eyesight has nothing wrong with it at all and I don’t even need eye glasses. The doctor asked for some lab tests, so the ministry helped me make the lab test and it came out to confirm that I have severe anemia and that was the reason for all the symptoms I have. The doctor put me on 3-month course of medication and asked also for a specific diet for me. Again, the ministry helped and bought the medication for me and also, they provided special food package for my diet. Now after just one month I feel much better and I don’t have the dizziness or the blurry sight anymore!

M is a second grade girl sponsored by Our Children. During one of the weekly lessons with the ministry about respecting all people, the girl said she didn’t love her older brother at all and that she will not show respect for him. After the small group time, one of Our Children staff sat with her and she asked the girl why she is so mad about her brother like this. The girl answered “because he kisses me against my will and he does bad things to me and this upsets me and when I tell my mother she says he’s my brother and he loves me.” The staff member understood clearly that the boy is sexually abusing his sister, so she and the local church partner’s Pastor’s wife went to the mother and had a talk with her about this situation. They came up with a solution together and the staff member started arranging counselling sessions with the girl to help her heal emotionally. This also ignited the opportunity for a seminar to be done for all mothers on how to protect their children from sexual abuse. Now, we have a day planned for the kids themselves on how they can protect themselves from sexual abuse.