Hope in hard places E4 - Dina from Egypt
In this episode, Embrace’s Revd Su McClellan speaks with Dina from Cairo. Dina is a humanitarian worker and she works with children and families living in extreme economic deprivation.
Above: Dina
In this conversation, Dina shares what it looks like to serve orphans and widows in the community where she works in Cairo: an economically deprived area where social problems, like drug addiction, are prevalent.
She explains why she finds so much hope, even in the darkest situations, and reminds us that it is often in the most desperate and vulnerable moments that people meet Jesus.
Listen to the episode:
Interview transcript:
Su: Hello, I'm the Reverend Su McClellan and I'm delighted to be here today with Dina from Cairo. Dina, you work in empowerment and protection for a charity based inside Egypt. It would be really good to just know a little bit about the work that you do. Can you tell us?
Dina: Yes, sure. I work for an NGO since 2018 and we focus mainly on child protection and empowerment. Before that, I have been working and serving the homeless children in Cairo, and I have served also inside orphanages. We have seen that here in our country, in our context, the problem of orphanhood is not that they are really orphans. But that they need programmes that strengthen their families so they can stay and can be reunified with their biological families. The child doesn't only need clothes, food, or some materialistic support, but that child really needs an attachment, a stable attachment, a stable environment. What's most needed for a child and for a mother and for a whole family is to keep the family together or to strengthen the family. It's very challenging to have a stable family, especially in these hard times and hard places where we serve. So we started in 2022, the Rock programme. And this one is focusing on strengthening families by prevention of family separation and also by reunification of children who has been living in orphanages back to their biological families. And this is why we called it the Rock Project because the rock means stability and something that we stand on. And of course our Lord is our rock. So if the family is attached to our Lord, that child consequently is attached to this stable rock and he lives in this stability and security.
Su: That's absolutely amazing. Could you just say a little bit about how you identify families that would really benefit from your program?
Dina: Yes, actually all of our staff are from the local community. So they are local community leaders whom we identified through the church and the local NGOs. And this is how we get to identify the families and the children who need this kind of intervention. We are identifying the most vulnerable and the families in need and in a crisis. I mean, the most powerful approach to this is to mobilise the community and to trust and to listen to the community where we are working.
Su: It's really encouraging to hear you say that because the model that you have adopted for this work is truly incarnational. Being rooted with the people, knowing the people, being part of the people, it's a model that is so reflective of Jesus himself. I was just thinking about that passage from Luke four that's so well-known and beloved by so many people: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor’. Could you just say a little bit about how that passage informs your work, what it means to you?
Dina: Yes, this passage is special and inspiring as this is where Jesus started his ministry by declaring clearly who he is. And after reading this passage, he was refused and rejected because he also declared it very clearly and very bravely. That he is not sent only to the people of this place or this city but to all the people because he is God who loves you, everyone. And for me, what really struck me at this passage is that the people marvelled at Jesus and wanted him to perform the miracles he did in other places. But he declared that the examples from the Old Testament where the prophet was sent to the widow of the other place and Naaman the Syrian who was healed. And I was asking myself, why, why Jesus? He didn't do miracles in his hometown and why he did this and why he answered like this? But then it was clear to me that Jesus is really sent to the people who are hungry and thirsty for him. So of course he is sent for everyone, but who receives him is the one who is hungry and thirsty for him. So maybe by serving the people who are in very, very desperate states, maybe this is what Jesus is sent to. Actually, this is what he is saying in this passage, that if you are the most desperate, the most hungry, the most thirsty, I am for you. And like, this is the place where you can meet me and be filled and nourished by me. So this is what really is very hopeful to me. And this is what I really see day to day in our community work. Many people are in hard situations, in hard places, and in very, very vulnerable and desperate states. But actually, this is the exact time and place where they meet Jesus and where we are honoured to meet Jesus with them. We are meeting Jesus in them and with them because yes, they are in very hard situation, but also they are in a very, very hopeful situation because God came, God came to us and didn't leave us alone, but he lived with us in the suffering and he decided to meet us in our suffering in this world and to heal us and to die for us and also rise and let us be risen with him.
Su: Wow, I mean that is such a powerful and hopeful message and I think it's very easy sometimes for us to forget that it is at our most vulnerable times, at our times when we are in the most need, that that's when Jesus comes to meet us. So you've articulated that absolutely beautifully. So, I mean, you've almost really answered my next question, but I was just thinking for you as a follower of Christ, working with very vulnerable children and families, in a country where things are really, really tough in the current economic climate, where do you, as Dina, where do you find hope? What gives you strength?
Dina: First time for me, I was able to find hope is actually, as I said before, when I discovered my desperate moments. And really lived it fully. And because here is where I meet Jesus. I mean, what I really learned in this kind of ministry we do in Egypt is to pray, to pray more and more because to pray is to meet Jesus, to come to him and be in the same place and situation with him and to see the pain and the desperate moments as a great opportunity to share in Jesus' suffering because when he suffered on the cross, that wasn't like 2000 years ago at a specific moment. No, this moment is eternal. And we live it this day and tomorrow and we lived it yesterday. And actually, this is a moment where we are seeing our God, our loving God, is dying and accepting death and every pain because he loves us, but also because he is God and he is Jesus. He is conquering death and rising. So for me, I can see that I see this hope and I live it every day.
Su: Thank you. You already referred earlier, Dina, to the widow of Zarephath, who Jesus refers to in Luke chapter 4. The scriptures are very clear that Christians are to have a particular concern for those who are marginalised in society and indeed to care deeply for widows and orphans. What specific challenges do the women you work with face and how do you respond to these challenges?
Dina: So the widows nowadays, especially in our context and community, doesn't only mean the one who has lost her husband because of death, but who doesn't have the presence of her husband, and this can happen for so many reasons. The most common reason we see is addiction with the men, with the fathers, that consequently make them not present in the family and also causing harmful practices to the family and losing the husband or the father of the family is really a challenging situation. For the women, especially the women we are working with, and the widows in our culture, in our community, are actually not always well-treated, but with mobilising the church and working with the church and the community where we are, we are trying to change this stigma and to really empower this woman. And this can happen by so many simple things like just letting her join our programmes and also when we mobilise the church to take care more and more for the widow and for the orphan. Because this is the church mandate and our mandate as the Christian people, especially in our country, we try to change and we begin to change the mindset of how we see and how we should feel really and think and act, like it's our responsibility as community and as our church to take care of widows and orphans.
Su: It's just really struck me, Dina, as you've been talking, that your mission and ministry really is an embodiment of that whole Luke 4 passage about bringing good news, release, sight, and breaking the chains of oppression. So thank you so much for sharing all of that. But as we draw this to a close, what would you like to say to our listeners and how best can we pray for you?
Dina: I want to thank the people who are supporting and praying for our ministries in the Middle East. And I also want to really say that I know what is seen on the news every day because I also open the TV and see the news. But when I see news about our country or our Middle East, I always say that's not true. That's not entirely true because it's not actually that dark. It's not that unhopeful. People from outside maybe thinks that the people who are living here in this area or in this situation must be really suffering and crying day and night. Like, once I was asked how these children are still happy or smiling despite their situation and where they live. Before I was serving and working here, I had the same question, and I had the same observation that these people must be really sad and desperate all the time, 24/7. But when I get here, I discovered that this is not the reality and this is not the case and prayers really do a lot. Because sometimes when someone living in another country or away from these people and just pray, he thinks or feels that prayer maybe doesn't do anything, but that's not true because prayer really protects the vulnerable and marginalised people by so many ways that maybe we cannot comprehend it all. God listens to his good people and to the hearts and by praying, the people who are praying are shielding these people, women and children, from many evil things and many bad things. We can't see how this is happening because this is God's work. As Jesus said, pray in faith, pray and ask as it's given to you. When we pray, people are protected and many marvellous things are happening every day. And we are witnessing this. What makes us really joyful and happy and protected is to be connected to our Lord Jesus. And this is what prayer does – to keep people connected to our Lord Jesus.
Su: I couldn't agree with you more, Dina. I really think that prayer is about aligning our hearts with the hearts of God and it's just so encouraging as well for you to tell us about the times that you see answers to prayer and the protective shield that prayer represents and results in, so thank you so very much for sharing that with us. And we will of course continue to pray for you and we pray for the blessings of God on all that you do and all that you will do in the future and particularly on the families, the women and the children that you work with.
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