Location: Alexandria, Egypt
Director: Rev Gendi Ibrahim Rizk
Founded: 1952

How it all started
The Evangelical Church in El Saray began serving the community in 1952. It began as a 'summer church' for people from other parts of the country who came to the seaside in Alexandria to escape the hot Egyptian summer. It has a long-standing commitment of service to the community. The church describes itself as an extended family, which cares deeply about its community and welcomes all who seek its help.

Under the thoughtful and compassionate leadership of the Rev Gendi Ibrahim Rizk, the church serves as a very good example of an inner urban church relating effectively to its community through a wide range of services, some of which are detailed below. Other services include a day nursery for 150 children, a day care programme for disabled children, employment and housing assistance for poor families and special assistance for refugees. El Saray is serving the poorest of the poor.

Current activities
Fairhaven School: In 1990, the church opened a school for mentally disabled children. It had two classes. Today, the School has 18 classes and over 185 pupils.

• The aim of the School is to help its pupils discover their talents, develop their social skills and learn to live as normal a life as they possibly can. This is done through training 5 to 12-year-old children, with low IQs, in the areas of social development, motor skills, self-care, safety skills, and gives academic training up to their individual ability.
• Older children are trained in vocations such as manufacturing assembly, sewing, woodworking, rug weaving, and vegetable gardening.
• The school serves children of both Christian and Muslim faith.
• The school aims to work closely with the children's families and the local community, to ensure the happiness and welfare of each child. Parents who can afford to pay the School fees do so, according to their means. However, most families cannot pay very much so the School subsidises almost all the children and also accepts some children free of charge.
• In 2004, El Saray Church set up a home for some of the children who have been in the care of Fairhaven for some time.  This now provides a safe place for the students, many of whom were finding it almost impossible to travel to the Centre each day.  Those who have parents, live at the Centre during the week and return home at weekends.  Some of the students also have very deprived family backgrounds and have sometimes been left to fend for themselves.  This leaves them particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, both and home and on the street, and so this new provision is even more vital for them.

Care for the Elderly:  The church also runs a residential care centre for the elderly, which began in 1992.  Alexandria has inadequate residential care facilities for the older members of its population and the traditional arrangements of the extended family are breaking down.  The church runs a residential care centre, providing nutritious meals, laundry and house-keeping services, and personalised care.  Medical, social and recreational programmes are available for residents, day-care guests and the community at large.  The centre also offers family training on caring for the elderly, as well as an outreach help programme.

Medical clinic: The church runs a 'drop-in' medical clinic, for those who are not served by the standard medical facilities in Alexandria. This clinic includes an Eye Care Programme, and patients are referred to two local opticians and a professor at the Alexandria Hospital. This Eye Care Programme provides glasses and medicines as well as operations. Nowhere else in Alexandria offers specialist eye care and patients would have to make the long and expensive journey to the Menouf Hospital if this Eye Care Programme was not available.