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Introducing:

Menouf Harpur Hospital

Tensions between Christians and Muslims in Egypt often make headlines, but the work of a group of Christian doctors paints a more upbeat picture of religious coexistence. The doctors run a hospital for mostly Muslim patients in Egypt’s heartland - the Egyptian Delta town of Menhouf.

The afternoon call to prayer sounds as doctors examine patients at the hospital run by the diocese. Unlike most hospitals in Egypt, Harpur receives no money from the government and its doctors donate their time to care for the hospital’s primarily Muslim clientele.

”It is a labour of love”, says Dr. Samir Bakheet, a 62-year old gynecologist from Cairo, who runs the hospital: He says most of his doctors are Christian, and that patients from across the region come because they trust the doctors and respect them. “Our doctors have a strong faith and strong sense of purpose, which is to serve the sick. We are not here to make a profit”, he insists. Dr. Bakheet says 50,000 patients are treated at the hospital every year and a quarter of a million go through the doors, if their families are included. He says 90 to 95 percent of the patients are Muslim.

Dr. Michel Awad, who gave up a lucrative job in Cairo to come to Menhouf, says the work is rewarding. He says the hospital’s founder, Doctor Frank Harpur, was so successful that he is still remembered for eradicating a parasite which was plaguing the countryside: “At the beginning, there were many farmers who suffered from parasites, notably one parasite called enclostoma, feeding on the blood of the farmers, so they were getting weak and unable to do much work,” he said. “Dr. Harpur and his team brought the treatment for this parasite and they treated many patients, so by and by word spread in the country and the government adopted the same treatment.” Anglican Bishop Mouneer Anis, who oversees Harpur Hospital, says its work is especially meaningful to him “The medical program is very near to my heart, because I myself am a medical doctor. I graduated in Cairo University medical school in 1974 and I worked in a hospital for 21 years before I became a bishop,” he said. He says the medical program is a way for him and other doctors to apply the Christian teaching of compassion for others: “Jesus, when he came to our earth went around doing good for all people, regardless of their religion, their gender, their economic status, and sometimes the church itself cannot do this,” he said.

The Bishop compares his team’s medical work to that of a Good Samaritan, who goes where organizations like churches cannot go.