This year's Holy Week has been particularly challenging for the Christians of Egypt.
Especially in Cairo, the actual situation of ongoing post-revolution political instability and insecurity is pushing people to lesser self-confidence, worsening an already serious social and poverty situation.
The friars of the cloister of the Musky district, one of the most ancient among the Custody of the Holy Land's ones, tell us such, in the person of the guardian of the emergency situation in which they live in aid of the last ones.
“Christians and Muslims receiving our help are not only poor, but they often live in misery. What we can offer them is too little and they are too many to share it, we don't have much means but for Custody's and benefactors' direct help”.
Primary emergencies are: housing, because there are not appropriate houses and there's no space for everyone, and too often the conditions of what they here call houses are too inhuman. Medical emergency: they have to continuously intervene for hospital admissions and diseases of any kind. Educational emergency: they receive a bit of education in post school but families cannot afford the expenses and so they turn to the cloister. The friars run two little infants' school centres. Essential goods: many get hot meals only at the cloister.
Beyond supporting the needy, the Cloister of Musky is also the base of the Franciscan Centre of Oriental Christian Studies, and so place of research and study for many Egyptian teachers and students who can rely on the friars and the library as benchmarks for many cultural aspects.
