Centers of community, faith, education, culture, health care, food support and hope.
The Comboni Missionary schools are all of these things for Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees in and around Cairo, many of whom have been in Egypt now for almost two generations.
The schools offer a sense of belonging and security to a community, uprooted and traumatized by violence in their countries of origin and struggling to make ends meet in Egypt.
While many of these refugees continue to set their hopes on moving to a Western country, the Comboni Missionaries in the meantime have been committed since 1986 to teaching their young people literacy and other skills for employment in Egypt.
These families’ ongoing financial struggles, however, prevent many of their children from benefiting from the social advancement their education promises. The Comboni Missionaries are seeking to remedy these systemic hurdles that stand in the way of their flourishing.
Meet some of these refugees and the Comboni Missionaries and teachers working to offer them hope in the video below:
Read the full story in “Schools of Promise” in our December 2021 issue of ONE.