A refuge in Cairo
On the front lines of global displacement, an MCC partner in Egypt serves refugees, empowering them to meet urgent needs in their communities.
As Abel* pulls shut the massive iron doors of the Eritrean Refugee School, he sighs and reflects out loud. “Every day, every hour, I worry about this school and every student.”
Horns blare and tuk-tuks whiz by as he locks the gates after the last of the students pour out into the alley and toward their homes in Cairo, Egypt’s capital and largest city. Excited banter fills the alley as the students walk home together at the end of the school day.
Abel is a volunteer teacher and the assistant general manager of this community-run school. His daily worries are far-ranging. Will the children arrive home safely? Can the school continue to afford high rent for the three-story apartment building it uses for classrooms? Will there be educators willing to volunteer as teachers?
Abel was one of the original teachers who started the school in 2017 in Ard el Liwa, a high-density neighborhood in Cairo with a large refugee population. He’s the driving force behind the extensive volunteer effort to sustain the school and prepare students for their future.
“It’s the kids who inspire me,” he says. “When they call out to me, ‘Teacher, teacher,’ [I feel] the respect of our culture. It shows they are gaining something from our efforts. So, this is a blessing for us.”
Support for this community-run refugee school is one of the many ways that MCC partner St. Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS) builds capacity in refugee communities in Cairo and empowers volunteer leaders to meet the urgent needs in their neighborhoods.
This year, four community-based schools like the Eritrean Refugee School are receiving support from StARS in partnership with MCC.
Each school, operated primarily by volunteer staff and teachers, is a testament to the tremendous collective will and energy within Cairo’s refugee communities to educate their children. But starting these schools and keeping them going is not easy.
When they call out to me, ‘Teacher, teacher,’ . . . It shows they are gaining something from our efforts.”
Abel*
Amira*, StARS’ early childhood well-being coordinator, travels across Cairo neighborhoods every week to provide teacher training at refugee community schools and help boost their efforts.
“On our first visit to these community refugee schools, we find the place is empty. There is no furniture the kids can sit on. There are just empty rooms, where the kids sit on the floor,” Amira says. “So, we see with our eyes that these children need our support.”
StARS’ MCC-funded programs provide teacher training, grants for school fees and furniture for classrooms. Teacher training is building the capacity of volunteer educators as they organize and run programs and implement academic standards.
“This is for their future,” says Amira. “Whether they go back to their countries or whether they stay [in Cairo], they will be able to help themselves. We want to empower refugees to help themselves.”
Amira says StARS’ support for the schools has a domino effect in family life.
“We see the lives of the children improve, and their mothers’ lives improve because they leave their children and go and work without fear. They feel safe because their community members are running these community organizations,” she says.
Cairo is affectionately called the “mother of the world” by Egyptians. Nestled alongside grand architecture from the Mamluk, Ottoman and Belle Époque eras are neighborhoods where daily life is a struggle. Food prices have soared; the price of bread recently quadrupled. Amid this grim economic reality, the city is on the frontlines of global displacement, with asylum seekers and refugees coming to the mother of the world in the hope of finding safety and some security.
The Egyptian government estimates there are 9 million refugees in Egypt. With a population of 22.6 million, Cairo has one of the largest urban refugee populations in the world. Most refugees live in Greater Cairo and Alexandria, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The majority are unregistered and without residency status in Egypt, leaving them more vulnerable to deportation.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates there are 246,000 school-age refugee and asylum-seeking children in Egypt, approximately half of whom were out of school in October 2024. Without residency status, attending school is a far-off dream. Many refugee children are left alone at home while parents work long hours.
Community schools provide a safe haven as well as an education. At the Eritrean Refugee School, the children are well on their way to being trilingual, speaking Arabic, Tigrinya and English.
The grade three class excitedly rattles off different classification features of the animal kingdom in English.
Like Amira, more than 80% of StARS’ staff are themselves refugees. They know the ups and downs of adapting to life in Cairo as a refugee — from getting around the bustling city to navigating language barriers to the bullying or harassment that can happen in the workplace or on the street.
StARS champions their refugee experience, leveraging their resourcefulness and creativity — and giving them opportunities to build their skills and develop from clients to valued staff.
In turn, staff, like Adam*, a 24-year-old Eritrean, bring their firsthand experience into their work with newly arrived refugees. Adam arrived in Cairo at 17, with no connections in the city, next to no money in his pocket, and no phone. He remembers his anxiety as he sat in the waiting room of Naimo Center, a StARS-run program that helps unaccompanied refugee children find their feet in the mega-metropolis.
Today, he is a StARS caseworker at Naimo who is part of implementing the programs for unaccompanied youth that helped ease his migration journey.
“When you come to Egypt at a young age, with no family or relatives at all, it’s really difficult,” he says.
“You miss the way you were communicating with people back home. You miss the foods you used to eat — you miss everything. It’s very challenging to pass through this at a young age.”
About 40 young refugees a day, some as young as 10, walk through the large gates of Naimo Center for the first time.
When you come to Egypt at a young age, with no family or relatives at all, it’s really difficult.”
Adam*
They have traveled to Egypt without their families, arriving from Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, sometimes from as far away as Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Some have escaped forced conscription. Many have been exploited on their journeys to Egypt and have witnessed and even experienced violence.
Staff are sensitive to the anxiety and fear etched on the faces of newcomers who wait for their intake appointments on the first floor. They greet them with warmth and smiles, like friends they have been expecting.
Adam and other caseworkers meet with newly arrived youth to make plans toward stability, including help with getting enrolled in school, assistance with UNHCR registration, job training or housing.
The five-story building that houses the center is a welcoming hub of English classes, mentoring, counseling, support for young mothers and a book club. Laughter, warm greetings and music echo throughout the halls.
On this day, the book club is discussing the nonfiction book Atomic Habits, a remarkable accomplishment considering most youth didn’t speak English a few years ago.
StARS staff know it’s vital to keep a sense of hope alive, but also a sense of fun. So everyone is looking forward to a graduation party for a group of refugee youth who have reached level four in English language classes.
Each student is handed a certificate to a round of hearty cheering and applause. The sun is streaming into the room, and the graduation theme song is blaring: Look who we are, we are the dreamers; We make it happen 'cause we believe it — a song fitting for today’s occasion.
Moments after the last certificate is awarded, a dance party breaks out. Regardless of language, everyone in the room seems to know the lyrics to every song, along with dance styles from each country. For today, their vulnerability and struggles seem to fade — it’s time to dance and celebrate this milestone of hope in their young lives.
Leslie Mina served as interim marketing and communication manager for MCC Canada. Roger Anis is a freelance photographer in Cairo.
A Common Place
Find more stories from the spring | summer 2025 edition of A Common Place.
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- Climate Change,
- Drought, Food
A mother’s persistence
- Poverty Reduction
First person: Asim*
- Migration and Refugees
Help and welcome for refugees in a new land
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