A Coptic woman who was injured in an Islamist terror attack in April 2017, and whose name has been withheld for humanitarian reasons, has been given a medically equipped wheelchair by Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity, upon the request of Tanta Governor Ahmad Saqr.
The woman is bed bound, and is resident in the Phoebe Coptic Orthodox Home for the Elderly in the mid-Delta city of Tanta.
The Coptic woman is among the 56 who were injured when a suicide bomber broke into the church of Mar-Girgis (St George) in Tanta during Holy Mass, and blew himself up. The explosion claimed 29 lives. That same day, as Palm Sunday Mass had barely concluded at St Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria, another suicide bomber blew himself at the cathedral gate when he was denied entry to the church by the security guards. Some 16 lost their lives, and 41 were injured.
The State announced it considered the martyrs and injured as terror victims, meaning the wounded and family members of the martyrs were eligible to free medical care, education, public transport, and all State services. The Tanta woman accordingly applied to be given a wheelchair which she could not afford. She was promptly handed the wheel chair by Governor Saqr, in the presence of Fr Hedra Magdy of Mar-Girgis’s.
Watani International
17 July 2018