Serving the poor in Beth Myriam and beyond

Though I am originally from Alexandria, I’ve spent many years in Cairo. After a long career in education, where I served as director and supervisor of eight schools, I am now officially retired. However, retirement has not slowed me down. I remain deeply committed to helping those in need.

My volunteering journey began in 1998 while I was in Jerusalem. There, I met a woman who had been inspired through a vision to start a project to feed the poor in the Holy Land. I volunteered in her project for a year, but one thought kept niggling at me: Egypt, my home country, is crowded with hungry people. Why am I not doing this in Egypt?

The question stayed with me after my return to Cairo. And when I learned the woman was coming to Cairo to give a talk, I signed up to attend. After giving her talk, the woman, whom I’d never met in person, approached me directly, saying she had a message for me from Jesus: he wanted me to open a house to feed the poor. Though I was grateful, I was also overwhelmed, and explained that I didn’t have the time; my job as a school director consumed my days, and my evenings were spent preparing for the next day’s work.

We discreetly began shopping and cooking for a few families

Nonetheless, I didn’t ignore the message. With the support of two women, we discreetly began shopping and cooking for a few families from our homes. Having no common base and little time made the work challenging, but we muddled through.

When a local parishioner, who was relocating for some time, heard what we were doing, she offered her house to me, asking only that I take care of it in her absence. This became Beth Myriam, in English “the House of Mary”, and marked the beginning of a more structured way to feed and care for the poor.

Beth Myriam, in English “the House of Mary”

Beth Myriam started out offering a few families in need a cooked meal twice a week and food to take away for the other days. It gradually grew to serve over 150 members of 33 families. The location was also used for community social and prayer gatherings and teaching, and we organised summer camps for the children.

When COVID struck, new complications arose. I was alone, the house was often crammed with shopping bags full of food and essential supplies, and distributing them within the limits of social distancing required a certain amount of resourcefulness.

However, I learned from the pandemic that much of the Beth Myriam work could be carried forward without a house. Thus the house was closed, and I have continued, to this day, to deliver donations to people’s homes or meeting them in public spaces, providing them with food, medicine, or assistance with their children’s schooling.

I am committed to the mission Jesus entrusted to me

Aside from continuing the legacy of Beth Myriam, I have taken on voluntary roles teaching French and English in two schools for underprivileged children since retiring from school directorship. I also go to the houses of elderly people who are unable to reach church.

I work six days a week – Sunday is mine! I’m sometimes exhausted and my fellow sisters tell me to slow down, but I am committed to the mission Jesus entrusted to me. It is my way of serving him, and I feel blessed to do it.