Holistic Children's Ministry

EGYPT

Children in impoverished areas in Egypt typically receive inadequate education—if any, minimal health care, and suffer from a scarcity of basic life necessities. These circumstances lead to unhappy, unhealthy, and illiterate children. Initiated in 2013, Hope4MENA’s Holistic Children’s Ministry assists local churches in meeting the academic, spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of these underprivileged children.

The overcrowded classes in public schools, with the number of students reaching 100 students crammed into one class, inspired Hope4MENA to start classes within local Coptic Orthodox churches. These classes, with 12-15 students per class, meet four days a week in the evenings, to nurture children holistically and grow in them a lifelong love for learning. “When I grow up, I want to be a doctor,” shared a child in our classrooms.

In the current 2024-25 academic year, the ministry reaches a total of around 6,000children in over 400 classes in nine governorates. To accomplish this, we have trained about 450 teachers, 70 class leaders, and 20 area leaders.

Not only are our children served during the academic year, but our efforts continue during the summer through our Summer School Program—a program filled with activiites for children and their families. Over 6,000 children enrolled in the 2024summer program in nine governorates.

Aware that teachers play the most crucial role in the holistic development of children in the classrooms, we invest a large part of our efforts in equipping teachers for the task through:

• A comprehensive academic curriculum; teachers are trained prior to each academic semester and mid-semester.

• A comprehensive spiritual program; teachers meet with their leaders on a monthly basis for spiritual growth and edification.

• An annual camp that is both spiritual and recreational.

These teachers are leaders in their local Coptic Orthodox Churches and so not only do the children in our Hope4MENA classrooms benefit from training, but those they serve in their churches, in addition to their own families!

Sudanese Refugees in Egypt

Thousands of these families—many consisting of women and their children, without their husbands—fled to Egypt with no income, no official documents, and no residency status. As a result, their children could not attend local schools. To address this urgent need, Hope4MENA began providing holistic support to Sudanese refugee children through educational programs at a community educational center. Starting in September 2023 with 400 children and 19 trained teachers, the initiative has expanded by the 2024-2025 academic year to serve 850 children with 50 trained teachers in specialized community educational centers.

SOUTH SUDAN

A new Holistic Children’s Ministry has recently been launched in South Sudan!

We currently have 400 students enrolled in 20 classes.

IRAQ

The Rejin Special Needs Center

In response to a pertinent need for a special needs center that is both affordable and offers professional care with Christlike love, Hope4MENA established the Rejin Center for Special Needs in Erbil, Iraq.

The Center, launched in 2019, serves 48 boys and girls with a various range of special needs. Not only are the children served, but the Center offers us a unique opportunity to minister to the children’s families as well, many of whom are Syrian refugees.

As the need increased in 2024, the center expanded by moving into a new facility, allowing us to accept 25 more children, bringing the total to 75 children ages 2-15.

Our staff provides them with physical therapy, speech therapy, behavior modification, oral motor therapy, preschool education to help them integrate in schools, and most importantly, they are taught about the love of God. Our staff are trained to relay God’s love, pray with them, and teach them as each of their disabilities allow. We welcome children of all cultural and religious backgrounds and have students who are Syrian Kurds, Syrian Arabs, Iraqi Kurds, Iraqi Arabs, and Yazidis. Parents of these children also receive parenting, awareness, and counseling sessions, with many requesting one-on-one sessions with our staff.

The Duhok Center

One of the groups most heavily impacted by ISIS were the Yazidis. The Lord provided the Hope4MENA team the opportunity of starting a center in a Yazidi village in Duhok, in cooperation with the Free Methodist Church in Duhok. Along with six staff members, this center serves 25 children ages 5-14 both educationally and spiritually. Children spend two full days a week in the center and the third day is a fun day with some of the time spent in the center and some of the time spent outside the center doing various activities. Kids learn principles through play and story time, and are provided with a snack. Our team also visits the families of these children.

Holistic Children's Ministry

“And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” (Mark 9:36-37)

EGYPT

Sudanese Refugees in Egypt

SOUTH SUDAN

IRAQ

“And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me”

(Mark 9:36-37)