"Garbage City" Happy House Nursery Fundraiser

Dear Friends and Family,

The Lord has recently allowed our family to connect with and support a nursery providing love and care in one of the most poverty-stricken areas of Cairo, Egypt. Egypt is not a country with a lot of government assistance and welfare programs for children and parents. People are either very rich or poor. There isn't a strong middle class like we have here in the states. It's still considered a third-world country, and for as little as a Starbucks coffee, 4 or 5 families can eat for a day. Mansheya Nasir aka Garbage City, is know as such because families work together to collect garbage all around Cairo and bring it back to their neighborhoods to sort through the garbage and decipher what is valuable and trade it in for money. The men go out late at night and early morning collecting garbage in sacks, then stacking them up on trucks and driving back into Garbage City. The women and children then go through the heaps of garbage and sort through it. They pile the large mounds of garbage on the sides of the streets and even bring it into their homes. Whatever is deemed invaluable is left in the streets, stairways, alleys and even homes to rot. The children who are dropped off at Happy House, while their parents go to work are the lucky ones. Can you help us? Please scroll down to read more about how you can help and see photos of the beautiful children who are receiving your support!

 

OUR INVOLVEMENT

As Habib and I planned to go to Egypt this spring for vacation, the Lord began to place it on our hearts to also explore ways we could help share the love of Christ and the abundance we take for granted here, with those in need in Egypt. Those of you who are Egyptian or have been to Egypt understand just how severe that need is. Through prayer and research, I met a fellow believer, Katherine, who has been volunteering and raising support for this nursery over the past 8 months. As we began sharing our hearts for the people of Egypt, she began teaching me about the needs of these children and Afaf - the woman who started this nursery; and we became fast friends! She is married to a wonderful supportive husband and is a mother to 2 beautiful children. Katherine has a heart for these children and loves the Lord deeply. This is Katherine…

In the past 3 months, God has delayed our travel plans to Egypt and stirred something in our hearts for Afaf and all the children at Happy House Nursery. It is our goal to begin raising awareness here in the US for the children and families in need and bring as much sponsorship as possible until God opens the doors for us to be able to visit. We need your help!

First of all, we would like to ask you to fervently pray that God would set aflame a calling in the hearts of believers to pray for this fundraiser and all the donation needed as God begins to do a work in the body of believers state side for this nursery. Children are very malnourished and ill without proper medical care and medicines available to them. The nursery needs ongoing financial support to provide basic essentials and supplies, such as food, diapers and wipes, toys, educational materials, cleaning supplies, electricity, staff wages and rent. Although Egyptians are working for pennies, inflation has sky rocketed in Egypt making it difficult for the nursery to continue providing for theses children. Secondly, we would ask you to pray about partnering with us in financial support to provide the care these little children deserve so desperately. Below you will find a greater description of the severity of needs at Happy House with specific details on how finances will be used and more details about how financial support will provide life-changing care for the children in addition to the ongoing partnership between Katherine and I and our families.

HAPPY HOUSE STORY

The Happy House Nursery is a daycare for children living right in the heart of Mokattam, Mansheya Nasir or better known as “Garbage City.” This very basic daycare was started in February 2021 by Afaf, a Coptic woman living in the area. The neighborhood “Garbage City” is named as such because the majority of people living in the area are Cairo’s garbage collectors, in which the streets are lined with filth. The families suffer from extreme poverty and are prone to diseases due to the unhygienic living quarters. The daycare is located in an alleyway inside of a dark building, surrounded by garbage, making it difficult to provide the children with adequate care.

Afaf created Happy House after losing her job as a nursery manager during the pandemic. As a single parent of three children, she needed to find a way of providing for them. Afaf charges 150 Egyptian pounds (9.54 EGP or USD 8.13) each month per child, which is not enough to adequately provide the children with a safe environment and healthy foods. Afaf’s income from Happy House barely covers rent and utilities, let alone healthy food and children's activities.

The nursery cares for 60 children ranging from infants to seven years old from 8 am-5:30 pm. The nursery can barely provide materials for the children to learn and play and has limited space or proper supplies to allow naps. Although the nursery provides a hot meal each lunchtime, it is generally pasta or rice with very little vegetables. As a result, the children are visibly malnourished due to a lack of calcium, protein, fruits, and vegetables. The nursery needs assistance providing the children with healthy food options and learning materials.

I am partnering with my friend, Katherine, who has been living in Egypt volunteering at the nursery twice a week. She has helped Afaf a great deal in raising support through donations of clothes, food, developmental toys and furniture for the various age groups, and learning materials. Many of the school-aged children in Garbage City cannot properly attend school. Katherine has helped Afaf develop a curriculum and gather materials to use as a make-shift way to teach kids the essentials like colors, numbers, letters and songs.

I am creating this fundraiser to raise awareness of the poverty in Garbage City and raise money for the children at Happy House Nursery. The nursery is expanding as more parents find comfort in leaving their young children to Afaf and volunteers, knowing they will be given better nutrition and care in the nursery than following them around the dirty streets all day collecting and sorting garbage. Many days children are dropped off at the nursery hungry, in dirty diapers and clothes, and sick.

FINANCIAL NEED

Donations will be used for food (yogurt, chicken, minced meat, milk, cheese, eggs, vegetables, and fruit) which is a monthly cost of $500 /9222 EGP, which we plan to maintain over the year. Afaf is also in need of extra support in the form of staff to help care for these kids. Right now, Afaf has only her sister and adult daughter helping her. As you can imagine, 3 women and 60 children is not a ratio that supports quality care and love. Each additional staff member is 1475 EGP or $80 USD. Aside from cleaning supplies, food, and staff, I am hoping to raise enough to help supply the kids with the learning materials (books, crayons, pencils, paper, etc.) and the upkeep of rent and utilities.

If possible, extra funds will be used for field trips giving the children a chance to play outside of garbage-lined streets. The daycare premises are an extremely small space(less than 800sqft), so it would be an absolute dream if, in time, we could also afford to move them to a bigger space with an outside area for them to play. As little as $5 USD will feed 35 kids their fruit requirements for a day. We are so grateful for your support in prayer and financially.

Thank You for taking the time to read this and prayerfully considering ways in which you can help! Please spread the word and share this link with everyone you know, because we never know how God will use us to spread his love and provision. Even if you can only share this link it means the world to us!

Happy House Nursery Photos