Orphans Day: Trading with God

By Ahmed Abdel Aziz Mostafa

An orphan is a member of the human society who has lost one or both of his natural parents. Therefore, he lost the main sources of joy, care and love.

All human values since the creation of the earth have called for the care of an orphan. These values have been translated into religions within divine instructions. All prophets have called upon paying attention to the orphans and providing care for them.

In modern times, the governments have paid attention to the case of orphans in order to create a healthier society which works together to provide all means of prosperity and advancement and reduce some types of security threats.

In Egypt, amongst many countries, there were many orphanages established. The orphanages lacked many of the needs and demands due to financial and economic troubles.

In 2003, a prominent orphanage in Cairo made a call to the adaption of one day per year to be allocated for orphans under the name of the orphan day. The idea was introduced to the celebrities' circle of actors, singers, musicians and football players. The idea was simple: it consisted of inviting the public to contribute on that day in putting a smile on the face of orphans.

Therefore, entertainment was organised, gifts were presented and excursions organised. All this was held on the first Friday of April.

The next year, more families were ready to attend, more children were preparing the unneeded toys to give to orphans, more gifts and donations were given to the orphans and there was more media coverage to expose the idea.

Gradually, companies and big enterprises came aboard. ,In addition, governmental institutions were also involved on personal basis and that day became a kind of celebration that the Egyptian family prepares for, one year in advance.

The idea was successful that many Arab countries adopted the concept and started applying it. It is now known that all Arab countries celebrate the first Friday of April as the orphan day. The media starts calling the society the whole month of March to prepare to celebrate that day.

Recently, with the rise of the terrorist activities, a new category of orphans appeared on the scene.

Those are the children who lost their fathers in the line of duty to protect the society from the threats of terrorism. From 2013-2016, we lost about 1,200 officers and soldiers in the confrontations. Their children now need our attention. They need our care and a warm caress to heal their wounds and integrate them back into society.

Needless to say that such an activity contributes positively to deepen our human values in our societies.

The awareness about the presence of the orphans among us becomes more important, including their demands, their need to feel integrated into the society and not forgotten, all requirements to be raised as normal citizens.

The message transmitted to the new generations since the childhood consists an important cornerstone in the formation of their personality and that they can have a role in this society from their childhood.

Such society contribution reduces the burden on the shoulders of our exhausted governments.

On top of all, the concept of interacting with orphans is what we call in Egypt, trading with God. This is the only insured and guaranteed trade known to humans.

The outcome and the benefits of this trade are 100% secured and the outcome is guaranteed according to the intentions of the traders.

Subsequently, on Saturday, April 2, the Egyptian Embassy in Uganda hosted the orphans day for the first time in Uganda.

The idea was to introduce a successful project to the people of Uganda. All personnel of the embassy contributed personally, not officially, to the success of this day.

About 40 orphans were invited to the residence of the Egyptian Ambassador to spend the day there where they enjoyed food, entertaining programmes that consisted of dances, music, clowns, acrobats, magicians and bouncy castles.

Souvenirs and Egyptian food and beverages were sold for the sake of increasing the revenue of that day.

To me personally, though it was an extremely tiring effort, I was deeply happy to see those children run and play and laugh and eat and see the thrill in their eyes watching the magicians perform their magic tricks and the acrobat perform his supernatural exercises.

It is and will remain an unforgettable day in my life and in the life of all the personnel and all the gracious people who attended the day and contributed to put the smile on the faces of these children.

On top of all, I wish that it will be an unforgettable day also in the minds of those children and finally it will be an unforgettable trade for all of us, Egyptian staff, with God.

The writer is the Egyptian ambassador to Uganda