World Outreach Network
Say “Egypt” and you immediately think of pyramids, camels and the Nile. Pictures of vacation trips and resorts come to mind. But what do we really know about life in Egypt? Egypt is not an easy place to survive. Only the 5% of land next to the Nile is fertile. The remaining 95% of the country consists of arid and dry desert. The small piece of liveable land has to be shared with 106 million Egyptians! Egypt has the largest population of the Middle East and comes third in Africa. Due to the faltering economy, the impact of the international crises and high inflation figures, is poverty everywhere.
Christians are hit twice as hard by the poverty in Egypt as normal citizens. Although there are more than 12 million Christians in Egypt, they are severely discriminated against. Discrimination is easy, because the Egyptian identity card shows the religion of every citizen. Christians are disadvantaged in every way: job applications are rejected, promotions are blocked, shops are boycotted and permits are denied. Christian pupils have to sit in the back of the classroom, Christian students get worse grades in college, and in hospitals, Christian patients are more likely to be neglected.
The need among Christians is dire. As second-class citizens, it is extremely difficult to keep afloat. The churches are poor and many pastors live in extreem poverty because the church collections yield little. Poverty is compounded by the rule that a pastor cannot have any other source of income. There is also a lot of sickness and mortality among the poorest Christians and many dying men leave their wives and children behind without any income. The poor Egyptian pastors are our brothers, their widows are our sisters, and their children are our children! That is why WON is committed to the fight against poverty among Christians in Egypt!