CareUnconditional

Church run clinics tend to Egypt’s poor

text by Magdy Samaan

On a chilly morning in March, patients began gathering within the thick stone walls of the old Franciscan dispensary in Cairo’s Klot Beik neighborhood, a bustling commercial district on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital.

The dispensary is situated within an Italianate complex of buildings, constructed in 1859 to house the convent and various apostolates of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the first order of Catholic women religious in the city. Today the sisters run 15 schools and five dispensaries throughout Egypt.

The dispensary in Klot Beik sees about 150-200 patients daily and has been serving the area’s most vulnerable residents since its founding. It offers several specialties, including dentistry, gastroenterology, otolaryngology, ophthalmology and dermatology. However, it is best known for its otolaryngology clinic.

Sister Suhair Mamdouh, the dispensary manager, is trained to conduct a few minor procedures, such as ear irrigations. Procedures carried out by the sisters are usually offered without charge. Fees are applied for a visit with a doctor, but even these fees are waived if a patient does not have the means to pay.

Sister Suhair conducts an initial exam of Hassan Suleiman’s ear. The 70-year-old, who is dependent on the government pensions distributed to Egypt’s poor, has come to have his ear irrigated.

“They are good people,” he says of the dispensary staff. “When my four children and I need treatment, we come here. They help us a lot.”

Sister Suhair underlines how the dispensary continues to live up to the spirit of the congregation’s Italian founder, Blessed Maria Caterina Troiani, in its care for all people, regardless of race, class or religion.

“We accept the patient on the grounds that this person has value and is beloved and appreciated by God,” she says.

Starting in the 19th century, several Catholic orders of religious men and women came to Egypt and built schools, dispensaries and orphanages to serve the poor. Health care has been an integral part of their mission.

The Klot Beik Dispensary — known locally as the Saba Banat (Seven Daughters) Dispensary, referring to the seven sisters who established the service in Egypt — is one of about 30 dispensaries operated by Catholic religious congregations and providing lowcost or free health care to Egypt’s poorest residents.

With the current economic crisis in Egypt, these services have become even more important for vulnerable populations. The rising cost of living has put medical care out of reach for millions of Egyptians struggling to make ends meet.