Last year, our magazine ONE brought you the inspiring story of the Santa Lucia Home, a facility for blind children run by the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross in Alexandria, Egypt.
Just this month, we received the following report from our regional office, describing part of our involvement with the facility and recent work there:
In 2002, CNEWA built a three story building, adding new classrooms and increasing the educational level of the school from complementary to secondary. Now, 1,500 students are registered for the 2015-2016 academic year. The majority are Christian. A dispensary provides health care to around 12,500 patients a year, and attends to the medical needs of the 20 visually impaired children.
As part of the school’s curriculum and activities, it provides Christian formation for the primary school students and the boarding of visually impaired girls, as well as music and singing lessons. This activity eventually led to forming a student choir. Today the choir is famous among the Christian community of Alexandria. To improve their skills, and provide these marginalized children with a career and hope for a better future, the sisters requested to renovate and furnish two old rooms in the basement of their home to be used for the above activities.
On 1 June CNEWA/Pontifical Mission, through its funding donors, was able to provide necessary funds to perform the needed work on this center. In October 2015, we visited the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross pastoral center. The initial work estimate of this project was $26,000 for rehabilitation, furniture and equipment. During execution, CNEWA’s engineer was able to reduce the prices of some work items which were overpriced, and thus decreased the total cost repair work to $20,000. As for the furniture and equipment, they will be provided by the institution.
You can read more, including a list of the repairs, at this link.
Help us to help more of Egypt’s Christians through invaluable projects like the Santa Lucia Home. You will help these institutions and religious sisters know they are not forgotten, especially during this holy time of the year.