Meet Sara (not her real name) who was rehabilitated in Think and Do’s shelter “Mahbouba” which means “be loved.”

“I am 20 years old, Christian and live in Cairo. I have no brothers or sisters. My family’s living standard is average. My father died when I was 15 years old and I was living with my mother. I had a relationship with a Muslim young man. In the beginning of our relationship, I considered him the hero who would save me from my father’s family and their control. He was cheating on me for a long time. He told me that he is rich, has a car and an apartment, but when I ran away from my family home to live with him, I discovered that he has nothing at all. We lived in the street and he was abusing me with all kinds of abuse. He was beating me badly with an iron rod and was insulting me before the neighbors. He rented a very small apartment and forced me to work in order to bring him money to buy drugs. He was a drug addict. I spent the worst 3 years of my life with him. I gave birth to a child in a very bad small hospital, which caused me an infection in the womb, and I had an operation to get rid of the pus.

A short time later, he forced me to go back to the street to beg in the street and in front of the mosques. People were giving me money because I was taking my child with me and I was telling them I had converted to Islam. One day I decided to run away and went to many priests, but they refused to help me. I also called my mother asking her to forgive me and to let me go back home, but she told me that it’s difficult because all the family and neighbors will not accept me to live among them again. So I went back to the man, who treated me worse than before because he knew that I had no other place to live. He beat me. Men in the street were asking me to have sex with them. I ran away again and I went to a church; my 2 arms and a leg were broken because the man beat me with an iron rod. When the priest saw my arms and my leg, he believed me that I wanted to change my life. He sent me to a convent and took my son to an orphanage. Unfortunately, I couldn’t bear the way the staff was treating me. They were talking negatively to me and pointing their fingers at me. At that time I refused God, started to be violent and started to ruin the place. A Christian worker took me to the shelter and I felt that I was lost and they had found me. I found love and acceptance, and I felt God’s presence in the place. In the shelter God touched my heart and I accepted Him in my life. I also called my mother and told her that God had changed me. I invited her to the shelter and she came, talked and prayed with the lady who is responsible for the shelter and God touched her heart too. I really thank God that there are such places as the shelter to help cases like me.”

This story is from Rain Collectives Instagram page.
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