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| above, boys receive personal hygiene kits at a Coptic Orphans workshop on health. Coptic Orphans works to get information into the hands of widowed mothers on how to prevent common illnesses, and is there in time of medical emergency. |
You may be familiar with the so-called “AIDS orphans” in Africa, and the programs funded by sponsors all over the world to help them. But were you aware about the countless children in Egypt who are losing their fathers to another deadly disease that infects up to 20% of the population?*
Hepatitis C claims the lives of many fathers at an age most would consider their prime, leaving countless children in Egypt without a father to provide for the family.
Mina and his friends are doing their best to ensure that their future children won’t end up as orphans. |
Mina, a youth in Not Alone, lost his father to Hepatitis C. But he is determined not to become a victim of the silent killer himself. Both Mina and his mother learned how to protect themselves from the blood-borne disease at workshops organized by Coptic Orphans. He now takes his own razor with him whenever he goes to the village barber. Mina takes care not to share razors, toothbrushes, or other personal hygiene items with others, as is common practice in families with limited means throughout Egypt, and tells his family and friends to do the same. Mina and his friends are doing their best to ensure that their future children won’t end up as orphans.
Did You Know?
Upper Respitory infection and disentary are the leading causes of death for children under 5 years old, together accounting for nearly 1 of 3 child deaths in Egypt. Both are easily curable. But only 60% of children suffering from respiratory infection receive treatment, and less than half receive treatment for dysentery.**
With vital but simple information like when to seek treatment, Not Alone mothers can save their children's lives.
**from the World Health Organization WHOSIS Database, 2006 data
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But sometimes nothing can prevent an illness. When a child who has lost a father falls ill, the family has often already exhausted what little they had tending the father’s illness and burial. Because surgeries cost money even at government hospitals, those who cannot pay suffer tragedies.
Nadia might have suffered this fate. Nadia, a fatherless child from Southern Egypt, was born with one leg slightly longer than the other. This condition has caused her constant pain and discomfort , and made the “growing pains” of adolescence excruciating for her. Coptic Orphans was able to arrange for surgery for Nadia through a special fund set up to pay for the urgent health needs of children in the Not Alone program. Today, Nadia stands straight and without pain.
Whether by supporting special surgeries for children with grave conditions, or supporting health education activities for youth and mothers, your contributions are making a real difference in the lives of thousands of children in Egypt, one child at a time.
Donate to the Coptic Orphans Health Fund
*National Committee on the Control and Prevention of Viral Hepatitus, Egypt 2009
