In the early 2000's MM and her husband started a Bible study for women. They were asked to go to a Christian family's home to pray for the daughter who had converted to Islam. While there, a neighbour came and asked them to pray, then all the neighbours came, and a Bible study began. For the past 20+ years more than 200 women have been meeting weekly.

Young people in Cairo have many issues to deal with and in general find it very difficult to gain employment. This Vocational Training Centre enables them to develop skills that will give them an advantage when seeking employment.

The people of this community are rubbish collectors. They pick through the rubbish bins and skips on the streets of Helwan City, take it home and sort it out. They then try to make a living from selling it to recyclers. It is tough work, it is filthy work. Their whole community smells of rubbish. This is where they live, work and die. It is home to thousands of people.

NCEC is a mother church for many small churches in small towns and villages around Cairo. The church has strong relationships with these churches and to support them has set up a social committee and a loan programme. They operate separately and attempt to meet the needs of the poor in these churches.

For several years BHW has been supporting the Holiness Movement as they developed a loan programme among their churches. As the leaders of the programme moved around the churches they have discovered other impacts of poverty on their people. A major one is that in many villages where their people live there is a great deal of competition for the young people. Other groups are snatching their children by providing preschool education and they want to respond to this.

There are huge numbers of poor in Cairo. It is a hub for the poor and for countless generations for refugees. They are spread right throughout the city.

There are tens of thousands of refugees in Cairo. They come from around the Middle East and Sudan. Currently NB regularly meets with a group of refugees from Syria and Sudan. They are Muslim families that have no one to turn to on arrival in Egypt.

Among the poor in Cairo are many men who are addicted to various substances. Poverty and despair leads them to become involved in drug taking. This then causes deeper levels of poverty for them and their families and a descent into desperation. A large number of families have been destroyed because of this. These men roam the streets looking for their next fix and live on the streets. They abandon their families and then they too become victims. For every one person brought back from drug dependency up to 10 people are helped.

The Christian people of Upper Egypt are the poorest of the poor. Generally, they really struggle to eke out a living, to educate their children and if an emergency comes, they have nothing to fall back on. SB and her husband come from Upper Egypt and they have many friends and contacts there.

Soul Salvation Church in the city of Assiut is one of the largest, most influential churches in Upper Egypt. It is non-denominational and has many ministries including a vocational training centre. The two aspects involved in this partnership are a sewing centre and two education tutoring centres.

Father A has established a house for the poor in a poorer part of Assiut city. Every day except Sunday a group of about 15 women come to the centre to cook 350 meals which are then delivered to the poor.

For several years the SSS has been providing medical assistance to the poor in Assiut. There are about 5 million people in this area, approximately 50% of them are Christians and 60% of them live below the poverty line. There is a huge need and medical help is a major issue.

The Christian communities of Egypt have traditionally been poor, especially in Upper Egypt. Most are daily workers and they usually only get seasonal work. Life is tough for them, made more difficult by the fact that they are an oppressed minority. They have few or no resources to fall back on and the church is their community. This partnership is about developing a loan fund from which people can borrow to start up small enterprises and so lift themselves out of poverty.