06/13/2022 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – Ebram is the eldest of three children born to a Christian couple in Egypt’s Minya Governorate. It is Ebram’s responsibility to assist his father with his chicken-trading business.
In order to keep Christian children in school and not be pulled away by familial needs, ICC partners with the local church in Ebram’s village to offer educational classes and supplemental support at the Hope House center.
Ebram shared with his Hope House mentor, “When I wake up, I go to get the car for my father to work on. Then I go to school. After school, I help my father distribute the chicks and then go to my lessons. On the weekend, I go to buy the bread and feed the chicks and livestock.”
His mother commented on Ebram’s academic and personal development, saying, “His level is average, and his sister helps him to study his lessons. He was naughty, but these days he is calm and helps us at home and at work with his father.” Ebram’s teachers and mentors have poured into him over the last few months of his participation in the center, allowing him to deepen his academic and spiritual knowledge.
Ebram expanded on what he has learned in the discipleship program. “I learned through topics and stories. I loved the story of Noah when he was calling people to enter the ark, and people refused, and our Lord descended a flood and people died, and Noah lived with his wife and children because he heard the words of our Lord.” He has grown in his trust in God and rejoices in the ways that he sees God’s hand at work in his life. “One day, I was hoping to fix the cart’s wheel, and I didn’t have money to fix it. God sent someone [who] told me, ‘Come work with me.’ I worked, and I had money, and I fixed the wheel, and I felt that God hears me.”
Academically, Ebram has grown significantly in the past year, though he still needs continued support. “The subject that I like most is the Arabic language, but I don’t like its grammar because I don’t know the syntax. A difficult subject is the English language because there are words that I do not know how to say it.”
As is the case for many eldest males in poor Egyptian Christian families, Ebram often feels the pull to lay aside his education and work to provide for his family. ICC’s Hope House and child sponsorship program offer quality education and incentives like food programs in order to keep children in school to help break the cycle of poverty and discrimination that Christians face.
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