The following narratives introduce individuals who are detained in refugee camps and desperately in need of the La Casa Futura project currently underway by Voice of the Copts. Egyptian youths have been uprooted and displaced for various reasons all related to religious persecution. Names have been changed to protect identities. Narratives are based on true accounts of actual events.
Two young men from the village, Gergis and Mohammed, were good friends. One day the state illegally bolted the doors of the church in their town. At time to worship congregants such as Gergis and his parents had no other choice but to pray in the street. This seemed logical since attendants of the mosque, like Mohammed and his family, always prayed together in the street.
But those who came out of the mosque that night were enraged to see church-goers in the street praying. Mosque attendees armed themselves with steel bars and baseball bats and attacked the clergy and church members praying in the street outside the locked church. This is when it suddenly became very dangerous to be praying in front of the church.
Local police made arrests. But victims like Gergis and his family were rounded up. They were forced to waive their day in court and submit to the supremacy of the mosque, which meant that the criminals would get away with this crime. Time and time again this was the case.
Gergis correctly sees his life as a victim where he faces danger every day. His second-tier citizenship assures that he will never see justice. He wanted to go into politics and work toward equality and human rights, but at age 15 he already knows that Egypt’s regimes are not interested in this. He left the country and will never return. He remains in a camp for immigrants in Europe.
Gergis can benefit greatly from the La Casa Futura project, which will remove him from the refugee camp where he now resides and launch him onto a new and better path. In fact, it is his only hope for a real future.
Won’t you please help us help Gergis. Please donate to this worthy and much needed project to transition Gergis and others like him into a better future! Donate whatever you can afford by clicking below. Every penny counts.
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La Casa Futura project currently consists of one dormitory building providing help for up to 100 youths per session. Each session provides language learning, job direction, and cultural understanding. LCF is in its initial stage of development as we seek financial backers and matching funds for individual donations.