Sansani Manphakdee accepts an award from the ADC Women's Empowerment Forum on behalf of thousands of heroic women and men dedicated to creating a just world. She thanks the ADC and forum chairwomen for their efforts in highlighting important issues. Manphakdee praises community volunteers, mothers who carry heavy burdens, and unsung heroines like girls facing obstacles from patriarchal culture, early marriage, FGM, and lack of education opportunities. However, she notes positive changes through Coptic Orphans' programs like Valuable Girls that build leadership skills and self-worth, improving academics and empowering girls to teach literacy. Manphakdee credits the success of diaspora organizations like C

1. Sansani Manphakdee award from the ADC Women’s
Empowerment Forum
Dear Friends,
It is a great honor to accept this award from the ADC Women’s Empowerment Forum.
In truth, I stand here today on behalf of thousands of heroic women — and men — in Egypt and
beyond, who have dedicated their lives to our shared vision of a tolerant, and just world.
I am grateful to our hosts, His Excellency, Ambassador Yasser Reda, and Mr. Ayman Youssef, for
putting forth the incredible effort to make this annual event what it is: a powerful forum from
which we can celebrate our community’s achievements, heritage, and progress. A special thanks
to Ambassador Reda for facilitating Coptic Orphans’ International Registration Renewal. We were
just notified of it yesterday, so thank you.
I want to thank the WEF for honoring and highlighting the work of these amazing women here:
Dr. Soad Bin Amer, The Hon. Dr. Mariann Azer, The Hon. Dalia Yousef, Ms. Laura Rozen, Ms.
Sansani Manphakdee— you make us all very proud.

2. For my part, let me accept this award with deep thanks to the ADC and Dr. Doaa Taha and Ms.
Sansani Manphakdee, chairwomen of the Forum, and pause to lift up the thousands of women,
young and old, who, by God’s grace, are truly the reason I can take this stage tonight.
I am speaking of the women of Egypt, without whom Coptic Orphans, the organization I founded
27 years ago, would have quickly vanished into obscurity.
Those of you in the audience tonight, honored guests of the ADC, will recognize these women,
because your own countries, your own communities, your own civil societies, also owe so much
to these heroes:

3. First, the mothers. Coptic Orphans, as a unique Christian development organization, works to keep
families together after the loss of a father. When tragedy strikes, it’s the mother who has to carry
the tremendous burden on her shoulders. We support them in many ways, but they are the real
heroes.
Second, community volunteers, who for us number over 450 and cover more than 700 towns and
villages. A good half of them are women, and together with their male colleagues, they have moved
Heaven and Earth by loving and mentoring the over 40,000 children we’ve reached in these 27
years. We owe the world to them, and in them, we see the spirit of volunteerism that transforms
lives.
Third, girls and young women. The unsung heroes. Let’s stop for a moment and reflect on the
obstacles that stand between these girls and young women, and the future they deserve. For one
thing, they contend from birth with a patriarchal culture that is so deeply embedded that their very
being female is considered flawed and inferior. The birth of a girl is at times occasion for
mourning. Then there’s early marriage. One of our field staff went into a home in Maghagha to
enroll a new family, and he found a 16-year-old girl, a toddler, and an infant. He asked the teenager:
“Where’s Mama?” She replied, “I am Mama.”
He told me: “I was so taken aback — I didn’t know whether to deal with her as a child or as a
widow.”
We can’t forget the brutal practice of FGM. Yes prevalence rates are decreasing, they are down to
91%, and all indications say that it will continue to decrease; but there are still places like Armant,
a village not far from Luxor, where I was just last month, where the rate still stands at 100%.

4. All this translates into countless barriers, both visible and invisible, to a women’s attempt to better
her life.
Nowhere is this more visible than in education. Entering into the school system, for girls in the
Arab world, could fairly be compared to entering the arena for single combat. Or, more accurately,
a combat of one against a legion of foes. We all know who gets called on in class, who is channeled
into what area of studies, who is favored with scholarships and other opportunities. We all know
who is blamed and held back, and who is shamed for “unwomanly” assertiveness simply for
claiming her own rights. We all know, in short, that it is only through heroic determination, and
extraordinary good fortune, that a girl can grow to be a well-educated woman and leader in the
Arab world.
This, then, is the reason Coptic Orphans focuses on quality education: no single factor is more
powerful in liberating women, and especially poor women, from the bonds into which they are
born — than a solid education.
Can these obstacles be overcome? Can a difference be made? Yes, absolutely.
I’ll give you a sneak preview of how it’s already changing for the better, through the Valuable Girl
Project.

5. So far, over 6,800 girls and young women have learned leadership and teamwork skills through
the Valuable Girl Project, and we’re ramping up for 2016 to add 1,500 more girls. Not only has
this resulted in remarkable improvement in academics, but it has changed the way the girl sees her
self — as one who can improve the world around her.
Last year, the community development association that hosts the Valuable Girl Project in Sohag
discovered that many students in the area couldn’t read or write, despite being enrolled in school.
In response, they organized a special training program in literacy tutoring skills. The girls came
together and volunteered to teach reading and writing to the village kids. Today, in the village of
Hawawish, over 200 kids now know how to read and write because of these girls. You can just
imagine how these girls felt about themselves.
So what’s the secret of the success? It’s quite simple.
It’s a new and unique approach to international development. Mothers, children, volunteers, staff,
donors… what we are witnessing, in our age, is how an organization like Coptic Orphans — with
feet planted firmly in both Egypt and abroad — in the diaspora — is making genuine, positive,
lasting change in the motherland. This is known as a diaspora organization — one whose sole
reason for existence is the homeland, and the homeland alone.
Diaspora organizations involve patriotic diasporians and bring together international and local
expertise with funds that are raised abroad, all for the sake of tackling urgent issues in the
homeland.
Such organizations offer the best of both words: local in-country knowledge, and international
access.
So, a Diaspora organization is one part of the answer. The other is the passion and initiatives of
every person in this room. You care, and you care deeply. The good book says “Seek justice.
Defend the oppressed, plead the widow’s cause”. And this is what you do. Each and every one of

6. you: Soad, Laura, Marianne, Dalia, Doaa… the ADC — you — plead the case of the oppressed
— and this is powerful!
So I’m very grateful to stand here tonight, accepting this award for Coptic Orphans, and I’m
humbled to be standing among giants. I am confident that we will make this a world of heroic and
empowered women who will, in turn, lift up every man, women and child. Thank you.