His Holiness Pope Tawadros II held the seventh annual meeting with the Metropolitans, bishops, and priests responsible for the social welfare service and these meetings were held on weekly basis for four weeks in the row in December.
The First Thursday’s meeting was held with the Metropolitans, bishops, and the priests of Upper Egypt (from Aswan to El Minya)
The second Thursday’s meeting was held with the Metropolitans, bishops and the priests of Alexandria, Delta Region and Canal Cities
The third Thursday’s meeting was held with the Metropolitans, bishops, and the priests of Greater Cairo, the governorates of Beni Suef and Fayoum
And on last Thursday of December was held with the bishops and the priests of Cairo and the Diocese of Maadi.
During these Meetings, Father Bishoy Charles – the Pope’s Secretary for Social welfare service – thanked His Holiness for his interest in this service and congratulated His Holiness on the ninth year of his sitting on the throne of St. Mark
explaining the main objective of the service, which is uniting the thought and working from one perspective to serve each human being and the whole human being.
The developmental service works on developing the people psychologically, spiritually and physically, as the human being is the cornerstone on which the great edifice is built. He also explained that the aim of these periodic meetings is to change the mindset among fathers and servants, and that the development work promotes and advances the human being.
father Bishoy Charles presented what was done during the years 2020-2021
The social welfare service office has followed up the service on the ground by making field visits to some parishes and regions.
Meetings were also held with priests and servants on Zoom, whether they were organizational meetings to follow up the progress of the service or training courses.
Coordination was also made between the poles of the service at the general level, headed by the Bishopric of Public, Ecumenical and Social Services )BLESS( under the supervision of HG Bishop Youlius, the general bishop for the churches of ancient Egypt in Cairo and the supervisor of the Bishopric of Public, Ecumenical and Social Services )BLESS(, the Papal Office for Projects, the foundation of the Shepherd and Mother of light, the service of Anba Abram in St. Mark’s Church, the service of Anba Abram in Canada (Mississauga) and the service of COPTIC ORPHANS
THIS WAS A DREAM We thank our Lord that it has been greatly fulfilled. This coordination, harmony, and the formation of the General Committee of Coptic Development Partners, and this cooperation resulted in assembling and integrating service efforts and not scattering or concentrating them in places without the other
Father Bishoy presented some of the pastoral and developmental projects carried out by the Social welfare service Secretariat, including:
Which target issuing savings books for girls to help her with marriage expenses
What was done previously:
After we used to open accounts for all girls, starting from the age of 10 with small amounts, we thought that it would be better to grade the age groups from those born in 2003 onwards (2004,2005,2006….)
A cooperation protocol was launched between the Coptic Orthodox Church (the bishopric of services) and the Ministry of Social Solidarity (Nasser Social Bank) under the patronage and presence of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II and Her excellency minister Nevin Al-Kabbaj on May 10, 2020.
The Social welfare service Secretariat covered 22% of the girls born in 2003 and 32% of the girls born in 2004 who were registered on the database, with an amount of EGP 4000 for each girl in her savings book.
(Donation are accepted on the CIB account number 100035771907 in Egyptian pounds or 100035771926 in dollars)
the Committee of Righteousness “Lagnet el Ber” helps the girls who haven’t got a saving book and who are in need for additional support.
During this year, 85 girls who had the saving books “Bent El Malek” were among the letters submitted to the Committee of Righteousness and were served with their needs.
Vision: Starting from 1/1/2022, will start opening saving books for the 4,189 births of 2005 registered on the database. (It is expected that this number will double as the number of girls increases in the database).
2- Alem Ebnak (Teach your son) Program
This program works through the formation of study groups for school students with a maximum of 12 students in one group under the supervision of the church to help in the educational process which served 2803 in the first academic term of 2021-2022
(Donate on account number 100035771853 in Egyptian pounds or 100035771877 in dollars at CIB)
– Participating dioceses: Mallawi – Port Said – Beheira – Shubra El-Kheima – 6th of October – Al-Amal City – Sharkia – Dayrut – Ezbet Al-Nakhl
The Secretariat of His Holiness for Social welfare service also carried out field visits in some of the participating dioceses such as: Port Said – Mallawi – October 6 – City of Hope – Beheira
There are some dioceses that carry out this program through the self-efforts of the church and the Archdiocese, such as the diocese of Tahta, Minya, Tanta and some churches in Cairo.
The outstanding students in the preparatory certificate who joined the “alem ebnak” program and the teaching staff from the Diocese of Mallawi, Port Said, Beheira, Shubra El-Kheima and 6 October were honored.
3- Baraka Bag Program (Food Help):
– This program targets making food available for people in need at upper and lower Egypt and the desert sector, and the number of bags increased to 12,736 bags/month for all the Dioceses of St. Mark in Egypt
(Donations are accepted on account number 531531-3924-EGP-003 or 531531-3910-USD-003 at Arab African Bank)
4- Education service:
Helping in education expenses (government schools, institutes, and colleges)
During 2021, 3068 students were assisted.
In 2020, 1068 students were assisted
5- Small projects:
The Social welfare service Secretariat contributes to some small projects
6– Corona service:
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II has been concerned with participation of all service sectors at the spiritual, emotional, and financial support in the treatment expenses for Covid-19 and we avail this opportunity to thank “HOPE” organization and HG Bishop Youssef Bishop of Texas and south America and their Cairo office for their highly appreciated support in that respect.
Father Bishoy Charles made general recommendations, including:
– Importance of follow up by Archdiocese and the priests on the progress of these programs
– Regular registration on the database
– Several Coptic charitable organizations have participated in the database which require that the beneficiary churches to register the assistance they get immediately.
We ask God to bless the service and develop it to raise their spiritual, material, and scientific level
Eng. Magdy Sharkawy, Technical Director of the Social welfare service Secretariat, talked about our vision in 2022 and about the development of the electronic system for this service through database development and launching of the mobile interface of the program
It is within our vision to promote servants’ thoughts for development principles and skills development
A refreshment course will be held for servant leaders in the regions of Cairo and the dioceses of Greater Cairo targeting the academic side of Church keeping with the knowledge and examples of how to apply it.
– The Social service Secretariat in return will arrange for a quarterly meeting with the priests and delegates of the areas for Exchange of different experiences and follow up as well.
Eng. Sharkawy have also presented the training course which was held with the assistance of the Committee of Coptic Church Development Partners in Beba & Fashn-Benisouif for the servants and how to point their needs.
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II have given a word about important concepts for the social service:
First: Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. (Psalm 40:1).
He pointed out that we sometimes forget the meaning of “helping whoever in need” we must return a poor person and we thank God we have many ecclesiastical bodies that serve and help them and added: “Where does the needy go, especially in circumstances disease or epidemic …. etc.”
Second: “For the poor always ye have with you” (John 12:8).
“And what is meant by poverty in its broad sense, the poverty of education, proper behavior, feelings…etc. And when Jesus said this sentence, he meant to remind us of our responsibility towards whoever are in need, and that we don’t forget that Jesus was born in a poor family and in a poor place.”
Third: “The poor are the guardians of the Heaven.”
Do not forget that the poor are the bridge and the road to heaven.
His Holiness also spoke of three characteristics that a social welfare servant should possess:
1- Be a good shepherd: take care of the large family that is the scope of your service, and be merciful, for man is weak by nature, and needs mercy. Every work you do for humans will be a crown for you in heaven, and it is good that you return home at the end of the day happy to repay someone.
2- Be a partner in success: and here I mean the social welfare service system at your service, be active in supporting it and its partner in its success, and the database is one of the most important reasons for the success of this service.
HH pointed that the Charity Committee in Cairo are working in a very strictly organized way and helps many under the leadership of HG Maximous. Also that of Alexandria under the leadership of HG Kerelous. He alluded to the fact that the organizers achieve better results and indicated the miracle of satisfying the multitudes in which Christ that people to be organized in groups each of 50 people.
3- Be a creative thinker: Renew your thinking to increase the effectiveness of the service that is given to your children. There are simple and innovative ideas that are suitable for small projects that generate income on the one hand and meet the needs of the local community. Think and choose the appropriate ideas that benefit our children with local thinking and creativity.