Valuable Girl Project: Empower 1000 Girls in Egypt

Dear Supporters,

Watani Magazine just interviewed Teresa Samir, a former Big Sister in Coptic Orphans’ Valuable Girl Project.Teresa is a remarkably young woman.

In high school she volunteered at the Valuable Girl Project center in her home town, El Barsha, meeting with girls in primary school to give them help with schoolwork and mentoring in life. Then, she became one of the site’s local coordinators, a group of volunteers responsible for administering and leading each Valuable Girl Project site in exchange for a small stipend.

She later moved to Cairo to work as a journalist, but came back to El Barsha. Teresa believes that the duty of everyone is to their local community. So she started the Masr Association for Development and Democratic Progress, a local community-building organization based in El Barsha, and started working to build up her town.

TAMKEEN, a recent partnership between Coptic Orphans and USAID that supports the efforts of local Community Development Associations in Egyptian villages and teaches them how to become more effective and

 You can read the full Watani interview in Arabic here, but do keep in mind that this does not represent the views of Coptic Orphans, which remains dedicated to our work with children who--like Teresa--have the potential to transform generations in their local communities, and not to politics.

• Global_Giving_1.pdf (PDF)
  

Dear Supporters,

I want to share with you the story of one of the girls in the Valuable Girl Project. Death is something that we all deal with but it has a different effect on all of us. Sometimes it makes us appreciate life and brings us closer to our family. Other times it makespeople go into a depression. Sherry* is now a very confident 13 year old girl who speaks clearly and looks you in the eye. But she wasn’t always this way.

Her father died unexpectantly leaving Sherry and her mother alone. Sherry was very close to her father and his death caused her to go into shock. She said despite having her mother around, she still felt helpless and alone. Her speech became slurred and very difficult to understand.

Sherry’s mother was forced to move back in with her parent’s family because they could not support themselves.

Sherry’s other aunts lived in the family home and made jokes about Sherry’s speech daily. They would tell her, “you, who can’t speak properly, be quiet.”

Read the rest of the story to find out how Sherry's life changed through VGP!

Links:

• http://www.copticorphans.org/

• I_Can_Speak_Now__Sherrys_Story.pdf (PDF)
  

Dear Supporters,

As Egypt’s future remains uncertain with political and religious unrest our Valuable Girl Project (VGP) continues to make strides to bridge tolerance and understanding between Christian and Muslims.

In Egypt it’s quite common, especially in rural areas, for people of different religions to never interact. Different cultural and religious practices often eliminate the opportunity to communicate. As people get older their fear of the unknown can sometimes develop into a full blown hatred. The goal of VGP is to empower girls and young women through educational mentoring . A positive outcome of the program has been the reduction of the communication gap between Christian and Muslim youth to gain a common understanding.

Aalia* a Big Sister participating in VGP shared her thoughts about how the program has made a difference in her life. She said, “Before my participation in the project, I used to carry negative attitudes and feeling towards Christians in general. I never used to have any Christian friends or as much as talked to my fellow Christian classmates or neighbors if I knew they were Christian. The reason I joined the project was exclusively driven by the motive to find a job…nothing else! However, upon the start of the project, I was personally touched by the love and respect my fellow Christian girls showed me.

Read the rest of the story to find out how Aalia and her family changed their tolerance through VGP!

Links:

• http://www.copticorphans.org/

• Creating_Tolerance_Global_Giving.pdf (PDF)