Valuable Girl: Empower 100,000 Girls in Egypt

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)