Coptic Orphans

I am an Egyptian-American woman whose family migrated to the states at the age of seven. I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. After graduation, I worked as an Engineer with the United States Foreign Service where I was stationed in the Middle East. During my tour, I visited Egypt where I saw my home country grappling with widespread poverty and illiteracy despite its rich heritage and decades of foreign aid. In effort to alleviate this injustice, I served at an orphanage in Cairo, where I began to appeal to my friends and family for support. This small initiative quickly gained momentum and formed the foundation of Coptic Orphans. For the first 12 years, I served on a voluntary basis before becoming the Executive Director in 2000 - a position that I hold until today.

When a father – the breadwinner of the family - passes away, the family slips into poverty. School becomes a luxury as young boys are sent to undergo dangerous labor activities such as cutting rocks only to earn a few pounds, and girls are married off at an age as young as 12. After meeting numerous families facing the same hardships, I had the desire to put an end to this great injustice. It was then that the Not Alone Program (NAP) was established, to develop and empower fatherless children. The program not only grants children the opportunity to continue in their schooling, it also focuses on the improvement of their educational outcomes, character, and sense of volunteerism as interrelated objectives. Through the power of education, the program uses a holistic sustainable development approach to lift children and their families out of poverty. 

During my time at the orphanage in Cairo, I was shocked to learn that the majority of the children had at least one parent that was still alive. Never had I imagined a scenario where a mother would willingly institutionalize her own children, and was determined to understand the circumstances that would drive her into making such a decision. I quickly learnt that for most, it was a desperate act of survival. The poor economic conditions of households meant that they were unable to financially support their children. This was particularly common among female-headed households where there was little or no source of income.

Problematically, studies have shown that institutionalized children are at high risk of developmental impairments and psychological and physical harm, and that these traumatic experiences can negatively affect a child’s future outcomes. Thus, I began to focus my efforts on keeping fatherless children out of orphanages. This would then lead me to the establishment of Coptic Orphans’ flagship program, the Not Alone Program (NAP), which would cater for orphaned children across Egypt. UNICEF estimates that there are 210 million orphaned children worldwide. Of this number, 1.7 million are in Egypt; hence, there is much to be done. 

Not Alone Program (NAP) is Coptic Orphans' flagship program that began with the establishment of the organization in 1988. The program is designed as an integrated set of interventions including:

• Regular home visits by community-based volunteers to mentor the child psychologically and emotionally and follow up on their studies;
• Training workshops for mothers and children on various developmental topics including volunteering, child protection from abuse, character development, constructive parental methods, etc.;
• Fixed monthly financial support to cover education-related expenses as well as food, clothing and medicine (i.e. conditional cash transfers);
• Special financial support for home improvements in extreme cases where housing conditions are hindering a child’s educational attainment and a family’s overall well-being.

The cornerstone of implementing the program is utilizing a network of dedicated community-based volunteers. Following up on volunteers is a team of field coordinators and area program managers who ensure every child is receiving the attention and support they need in order to stay in education and develop emotionally and psychologically. 

Beneficiaries of this program are primarily fatherless children in Egypt who are living in poverty and cannot afford the cost of education. Through this program, young girls who are at risk of early marriage and young boys who are expected to work to make a living, are given the opportunity to live out their childhood and to build a future for themselves, and by extension their families and communities. Additionally, it aims to preserve the family unit and prevent children from institutionalization.  

The program also offers a unique model of mentorship, where volunteers guide mothers in navigating through complex issues including but not limited to schooling, budget management, and parenting, while they follow up with the children on their studying and offer themselves as role models in place of the deceased fathers.

By targeting female-headed households with little or no source of income due to the absence of the father, Coptic Orphans works to empower vulnerable women and children who are often forgotten and neglected.

Additionally, the Elevate Prize awards projects that aim to ‘elevate humanity and inspire others to act as social engines for social good’. Coptic Orphans’ Not Alone Program is exemplary of this, as it not only stops children and families from entering a vicious cycle of poverty; it also works to instill a sense of volunteerism within them so that they can become change-makers within their own communities. 

It all began during a short-term stay in Cairo, Egypt in the late 1980's. I began volunteering at an orphanage in Cairo where I learnt of the poor living conditions of the children and their lack of access to education. It was in that moment that I felt a sense of responsibility to serve the orphans in Egypt. I began mobilizing donations and sponsorships from the Egyptian diaspora in the US for a small number of orphans. Although it originally began with 45 young girls at the orphanage in Cairo, with the help of community-based volunteers, we began to discover and support families outside the orphanage, focusing our efforts on supporting fatherless children, as explained previously. As time passed, this small initiative grew into a larger operation - little did I know that it would eventually evolve into Coptic Orphans, an international non-profit organization.

From the young age of seven, my family migrated to the US and I was raised in Virginia. My father and my strong-willed mother made sure that my two sisters and I had everything at our disposal including food, shelter and access to quality education. I had not realized the huge sacrifice that my parents made for us, migrating to a different country, until I was stationed in the Middle East with the Foreign Service as part of my tour of duty. They had left the comfort of their home, families and community, and ventured to the other side of the world for us. I felt gratitude and a strong sense of responsibility to honor my parents and my homeland. I wanted to find a way of giving back to the country that had been home to me, my family and my ancestors. I explored different ways I could give back but nothing felt right until I began volunteering at the orphanage in Cairo, when it all began. 

As the founder and Executive Director of this organization, I have the edge and the experience required to drive the continuous growth of this organization and to ensure its long-term sustainability for countless years to come. Coptic Orphans began in my basement, and under my leadership, five offices have opened in the US, Canada, Australia, UK and Egypt.

Multiple awards have recognized my efforts and Coptic Orphans’ profound organisational achievements. The National Council of Non-profits and the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area Community have recognized my work with Coptic Orphans. I also won the Women’s Leadership Award from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) Women’s Empowerment Forum. I am a recipient of the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area's Community Human Rights Award, and the Women's Forum Excellence in Leadership Award.

As an organisation, Coptic Orphans was named a semi-finalist in the Washington Post Excellence in Non-profit Management Award. Coptic Orphans’s sound fiscal management and commitment to transparency and accountability have earned it the highest 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, North America’s largest independent charity evaluator, for 9 consecutive years. This puts Coptic Orphans among only 3% of the non-profits Charity Navigator reviews. The four-star rating means that Coptic Orphans’ staff and board of directors consistently execute their mission of supporting Egypt’s fatherless children in a way that is financially sound. Finally, more recently, the United Nations Economic and Social Council have recommended Coptic Orphans for special consultative status, which is an honorable and prestigious achievement.

In a country where women’s roles are traditionally limited and limiting, I often found myself fighting tooth and nail and challenging the status quo. Being a patriarchal society, I experienced a handful of setbacks that I know existed only because of my gender.

One of the biggest obstacles I faced involved the registration of Coptic Orphans as a non-profit in Egypt. This required a lot of determination and perseverance, and I only succeeded 25 years after the organisation’s establishment.

Another major obstacle, which I did not foresee as being an issue, was working alongside the Coptic Church in Egypt. Being Coptic myself, I imagined that gaining the support of the church would be easy, however when dealing with a two thousand year old institution, introducing a new model is almost an impossibility. However, it took a lot of determination and patience to prove the success of Coptic Orphans’ model and eventually its acceptance. One Bishop confided in me “we did not think you would succeed, but you proved us wrong”. 

In 2011, directly after the revolution, the Egyptian government began a draconian crackdown on all international NGOs. I found myself defending Coptic Orphans’ work fearlessly and relentlessly. I was summoned for an investigation while I was in the US. At the time, no one that was summoned from outside of Egypt returned out of fear of imprisonment. Nonetheless, I chose to return in order to protect the staff and the organization. I felt that I, as the leader, had to take the consequences and no one else. After thorough investigation and near imprisonment, Coptic Orphans was vindicated, proving that no challenge cannot be overcome.

What distinguishes Coptic Orphans’ program from others is our dedication to the child's holistic development over the span of their childhood, adolescence and up to their early adulthood stage. We provide opportunities that enrich the child's personality, education, and sense of responsibility that usher a prosperous and promising future.

We achieve this through a volunteer-based model, which utilizes a large grassroots network of community-based volunteers. These volunteers form the backbone of the organization and are not only important for ensuring that program outcomes are being achieved, but also serve as life-long loving and caring mentors for the children and mothers.

At Coptic Orphans, we have a deeply rooted conviction in a comprehensive developmental approach for children, which reflects our vision of sustainable change as a core value of the organization. We believe that poverty is a complex social issue involving all areas of life — physical, personal, social, cultural, and spiritual. Therefore, our holistic, integrated approach involves three stages: Helping the vulnerable restore their identity, helping them envision a better future, and then, providing them with the tools to get there. We believe that by unlocking the potential of the children and helping them realize their value, they are encouraged to pursue prosperous futures for themselves and their communities. 

To date, Coptic Orphans has served over 55,000 Egyptian children in 700 towns and villages, established a grassroots network of over 550 community-based volunteers across the country, and mobilized thousands of donors and supporters around the world.

The current number of children that Coptic Orphans serves across all programs is 15,500, of which 11,900 are part of the Not Alone Program.

I envision a long and steady growth for the organisation. With every year that passes, an average of 2,700 new children are enrolled into the Not Alone Program. We are always searching for innovative solutions to build our capacity to enroll more children in all our programs, and at this rate, we predict to have served nearly 100,000 children in five years’ time. 

While any organisation can inspire others to do good, we strive to inspire our beneficiaries to do good, and to be engines that drive social good.

A recent story of one of our Not Alone Program graduates highlights this very point. A once-careless student named Kyrolos, joined the program in 2012, and was a participant for six years. After his father’s death, he was obliged to live with his paternal uncle and grandmother in a ramshackle one-floor house.

Eventually, the house fell apart, and his mother who owned a small piece of land, was forced to take a loan against this piece of land to rebuild the house. Kyrolos and his brother Mina had to work after school to help their mother in paying the loan installments.

After joining the program, we worked with Kyrolos on the program’s three main goals; education, character and volunteerism. The volunteer responsible for monitoring Kyrolos’s progress encouraged him to pursue his education and he soon joined the Faculty of Education in the English Language Department. Kyrolos excelled in his English studies, and graduated in 2018.

After the coronavirus pandemic led to the closing of schools throughout Egypt, Kyrolos decided to help others using his language skills. He created a YouTube channel to post free online English teaching videos for other students forced to study at home. His YouTube channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCTPwNxsVchTtPzH7B7FWcw

Kyrolos’s actions are exemplary of what Coptic Orphans aims to achieve with all its beneficiaries at any point in time. 

The biggest barrier that exists for us today is the onset of the global pandemic, which has shrunk our financial capacity and placed a burden on the organisation. We have experienced a large drop in revenue and it is expected to continue to decrease with the current economic downturn. The pandemic has thus far forced us to suspend many of our major program activities such as home visits, workshops, and training until further notice, and has made it mandatory for us to begin finding remote online solutions to operate in a COVID-safe way.

The pandemic has had a negative impact on the children and their families. This is especially true in Cairo because of the increased cost of living compared to other areas. Mothers, who relied on their small businesses such as grocery stores at home, have needed to close them out of fear of contracting the virus.

In addition, the cost of each COVID-19 test in Egypt is approximately 3,000 EGP, which is close to $200 USD. Due to its lack of affordability, we have chosen to cover the costs of the tests for beneficiaries who need it and cannot afford it.

Furthermore, due to school closures, children are forced to study online from their home. For many of our beneficiaries this is a challenge due to lack of access to a computer or internet. Hence, Coptic Orphans will provide families with these tools in order to ensure program outcomes are being achieved.  

In order to keep the organisation afloat, over the next year we must work to expand our pool of generous donors through various marketing campaigns. We aim to do so by raising awareness of the situation on the ground in Egypt through crowd-funding methods and virtual events.

Periodical assessments will be done to ensure that the organisation is financially sound and able to continue to support our beneficiaries. The number of children enrolled in our programs each year will be largely dependent on these assessments, and may vary from year to year. 

Coptic Orphans has a mission-driven business model, in which the organization’s impact is showcased through its programs and interventions, which not only focus on educational outcomes, but also on beneficiaries’ empowerment and long-term sustainability. In order to achieve such impact, cash transfers offered to beneficiaries within the Not Alone Program are conditional to a participant’s commitment towards education and in their ongoing participation in program activities.

In 2019, our 550 community-based volunteers delivered 368 workshops to the participants and their mothers on sex education and protection from sexual abuse. Volunteers not only delivered these training topics to program participants, but to others in their community, bringing the total number of indirect beneficiaries to well over 39,000. Additionally, volunteers carried out 148,800 home visits in order to monitor and evaluate the progress of our participants.

Out of belief that all children have the right to protection from any form of abuse, neglect or exploitation, we are partnered with a specialized company to provide counselling sessions to support participants who were exposed to severe abuse. Furthermore, participants are encouraged to apply for educational grants, including an internal ‘Future Leaders Scholarship’ offered by Coptic Orphans.

Aside from the Not Alone Program, other interventions offered by Coptic Orphans include micro-grants to widowed mothers wanting to start their own businesses (B’edaya), as well as a community-based intervention aimed at empowering young females (Valuable Girl Project). 

In order to implement our programs, we maintain a balance between our sustainability over the long term all while prioritizing and promoting our social mission. The bulk of our revenue model consists of individual monthly contributions through the incentive to sponsor a child, as to empower those children who face the deadly combination of poverty and social injustice.  Through individual contributions, children overcome these obstacles and become change-makers in their own communities.

We have a robust network of loyal donors who contribute through an automated monthly schedule, as well as those who have selected Coptic Orphans as a recipient for their planned giving.  Additionally, we have a diverse investment portfolio that yields an annual income as well as occasional awards and grants that supplement our steady revenue. Since COVID-19, we have had the financial capacity and organizational resilience to react to this unexpected threat all while maintaining our programmatic operations. Our repeated ability to reallocate financial resources and provide consistent services to our vulnerable communities demonstrates our long-term financial stability and ability to handle both expected and unexpected expenses.

Given our social responsibility to the individuals we serve, we must be financially agile. Over the past year, we have expanded our services all while handling short term changes such as monthly variability in donations as well as long term unexpected economic shocks such as this global pandemic. We frequently assess, evaluate, and strategically manage our activities and models for the long-term financial health of the organization.

Coptic Orphans has been registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Virginia since April 1993. We raise the vast majority of our funds through monthly recurring donations from donors. We have a well-trained fundraising team responsible for reaching our set fundraising goals. This team works to develop, cultivate, and maintain new and existing donor relationships through local, national, and international outreach trips intended to promote our programs and raise funds. This is accomplished via networking, presentations, and other speaking engagements. We have developed sophisticated analytics to assess our marketing and communications strategies and we consistently develop innovative ideas to take donor acquisition, engagement, and maintenance to a new level.

Over the past year, our network of over 7,000 generous donors have contributed close to thirteen million US dollars to the mission. This stream of revenue has served in positively changing the lives of thousands of orphaned and other vulnerable children. In our main program, we provide impoverished children and families with financial support, tutoring, mentoring, and access to quality education in over 700 villages across Egypt. Our latest project involves tracking emerging COVID-19 outbreaks within the communities where we serve. We intervene immediately by supplying hygiene kits, and by providing appropriate educational materials for these vulnerable populations. We are constantly updating our donors about the situation on the ground and have launched a large fundraising initiative to provide hygiene kits for thousands of families who have little to no access to such life-saving kits.  

Families are facing economic insecurity and need immediate financial support to maintain access to effective health services, quality education, and a safe environment to live in. We anticipate that the financial ramifications that will emerge post pandemic will be massively disruptive and especially devastating for the poorer communities. Minor obstacles that children and families once faced will be exacerbated by a cascade of problems arising from the virus such as inflation of everyday household items, services, and food.  While we have the funds to support the children as food prices soar, we do not have sufficient funds for the unexpected necessity of internet and computers now necessary to pass the school year. 

We are requesting grant funding in the amount of five hundred thousand dollars over the course of two years. This will provide laptops and internet access for all school-aged children who have no alternative educational opportunities from the start of the school year - September 2020. Despite the pandemic, we aim for each child to continue their education, uninterrupted, via virtual classes, seminars, and tutoring. Our second, equally important request is to provide tablets and internet access to our 550 on-ground community-based volunteers, who are the life-giving connection to the children. These tablets will allow them to deliver no contact program services to the children and families as well as quickly provide necessary health updates, produce children’s progress reports, report on program objectives, and enable effective and efficient communication with our field staff and headquarters.

In 2020, Coptic Orphans has budgeted five and a half million US dollars towards program expenditures. Given current circumstances, approximately ninety-four thousand US dollars have been set aside for housing and medical emergencies. Aside from regular medical issues that may arise, Coptic Orphans has made a commitment to financially assist all the families in our programs in covering medical expenses (testing and hospital bills) that are related to COVID-19.

I am applying for The Elevate Prize, not only to raise awareness of Coptic Orphans and its valuable initiatives in Egypt, but also to expand its programs to all those in need, especially during this pandemic where those who suffer most will be the less equipped to respond. During times of crisis we want to shine in taking the opportunity to do greater good because the need is so crushingly great.

Coptic Orphans is in need of strong media and marketing campaigns, that will make its mission known to a larger pool of people who would be willing to donate. It is also in need of board members or advisors. Not too many people have board experience, and there is always a difficulty in recruiting board members. It becomes an added responsibility on the organization to educate and orient board members.