There are over 16,000 non-profit organisations working in Egypt, some more officially than others. The debate over their funding, now so acute, will ultimately to be decided at court. But let's not forget that Egypt was one of the first countries to institutionalise voluntary and charity work.
Since time immemorial, Egypt had to operate a collective system for irrigation and for the collection and storage of food, as the biblical story of Joseph suggests. Christian and Muslim rulers kept the tradition alive, using a complex tax system to take care of the unprivileged classes or handle times of draught and other natural disasters.
In the ninth century, Egypt's ruler Ibn Touloun used public funds to create a non-profit hospital the tale of which was told in remarkable detail by the chronicler Al-Maqrizi:
"Ibn Touloun ordered a maristan [hospital] to be built for sick people. Before his time, Egypt didn't have any maristan. When the maristan was built, Ibn Touloun made it clear that soldiers and palace slaves were not allowed to receive treatment in this maristan, because, being in the pay of the state, they had access to other forms of medical care. He had two public baths built in the maristan, one for men and the other for women. When patients were admitted in the maristan, their clothes and belongings were removed and stored by the manager. Then the patients were given clothes and a bed and were treated and fed until they got well. Once a patient was able to eat a whole chicken and a loaf of bread in one go, he was declared healed and given his belongings and told to leave."
Having spent 60,000 dinars (a phenomenal sum considering that 1,000 dinars could buy you a mansion at the time) to build the maristan, Ibn Touloun used to visit it in person every Friday, where he proceeded to inspect the coffers and supplies and talk to the doctors and patients. The maristan was to all patients regardless of their wealth or social standing. Other charity organisations, including Quranic schools and drinking fountains were common for most of the Middle Ages and throughout Ottoman times.
Modern non-profit organisation appeared under Khedive Ismail, from 1863 onwards. It was then that Christian missionaries started their own schools, offering education, among other things, in European languages. Language skills were very much in demand and Muslims as well as Christians attended missionary schools to enhance their job prospects.
Foreign non-profit organisations were allowed to collect donations from the government as well as the public.
According to The Egyptian Parliament, a book issued by Alexandria Library, in 1923 the parliament, seeking to encourage the creation of Egyptian voluntary organisations, passed a law demanding that the government offer these bodies regular assistance.
The Anglican Church was among the first Christian organisations to engage in local charity work. In 1906, it built an orphanage in Fomm Al-Khalig in Cairo. In 1915, one of the church activists, Margaret Smith, acquired a large building in Abbasiya, formerly an Austrian hospital, and expanded the orphanage.
According to the book issued in the Golden Jubilee of the Great Coptic Charity organisation that The Well of Copts, in the presence of Sheikh Mohamed Abdu and Abdallah El-Nadim, created the Charity Efforts Society (CES, or gamiat al-masaei al-khairiya) in the late 19th century. The CES, which offered help to the poor and the sick, collected a monthly donation of 10-20 piastres from its members. This money helped the CES build the Coptic Hospital on the Malika Nazli Street (now Ramses Street).
When he went to inaugurate the Coptic Hospital in 1927, the king donated LE500 to the new hospital, which treated all patients irrespective of religion.
"Bravo, great people, lovely work," the king told his entourage as he inspected the new hospital, as published in Al-Lataef Al-Mosawara newspaper in 7 March 1927.
The total cost of building the Coptic Hospital came to LE65,000, of which LE43,000 were funded by donations and the rest by credit. Unable to service the debt, the CES later on offered the land as a collateral to a bank in return for an easier repayment plan.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 1 March, 2012 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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