Sometimes, when Isis Rateb is finishing paperwork at St. Marina Orphanage, a teenage girl will knock on her door and ask, “Can I have a hug?”
“She doesn’t say she wants food or ask for anything else. She just wants a hug,” says Ms. Rateb, the house supervisors at the home for 45 Christian women ages 15-25 in Port Fouad, Egypt.
“These girls are vulnerable,” Ms. Rateb says. “Their families wronged them, and life wronged them. This is a shelter that embraces every girl who needs it.”
The Coptic Orthodox Church, supported by CNEWA, runs St. Marina’s as well as the nearby St. Abanoub Orphanage for boys.
Mina Nasser, 32, lived at St. Abanoub for 10 years, and he says what he learned there “played a big role in my success” as an adult.
Father Yaqob Rashed, director of both orphanages, says “these houses are very important because they gather those who have no one to care for them.”
One resident of St. Marina’s speaks of its importance: “This house is not just walls. It’s a warm embrace that holds us.”
Learn more about the refuge these homes offer at-risk youth in this video. Then read “A Place They Call ‘Home’ ” in the March 2025 edition of ONE magazine.