In the village of Kafr El Nasara, MCC supports literacy education through BLESS, a Coptic Orthodox organization that provides literacy classes in different parts of Egypt. Hanan Abanoub, a student in the literacy classes, reads with her children Abu Noub Sabour, 13, Girgis Sabour, 8, and Niveen Sabour, 7.

Seventy-year-old Fayek Habib Saliib, a literacy student, talks in his home in the village of Kafr El Nasara. He says one reason he wanted to learn to read and write was so he wouldn't get taken advantage of when signing documents and buying and selling. 

The door to a home in the Christian village of Kafr El Nasara reads "God is love" in Arabic.

Wafaa Musaad peels leaves off of cauliflower. In the village of Kafr El Nasara, many people rely on farming for income.

Rural scenery in the village of Kafr El Nasara. 

Soheir Samir, a literacy student, helps her daughter Marina, 8, to read a book.  She holds her baby Michael Magdy.

Pictured is His Grace Bishop Agathon of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese in Maghagha. He supports the literacy work in the area and hopes it can be a way to build bridges between Christians and Muslims.

Students participate in a literacy class in the village of Eshneen El-Nasara. The majority of students in the classes are women.

Saadaya Shehata writes her name on the chalkboard during a literacy class in the village of Mayana.

Mariam Gherbaway, left, and her sister Manel work on homework in their home in the village of Eshneen El-Nasara. Both of them are students in the literacy classes. 

Sunset paints the city of Cairo in golden hues. 

In Hud El-Henna, a garbage collectors' settlement on the outskirts of Cairo, a Coptic Orthodox church sits beside a community center where literacy classes and a nursery school are held.  Sister Vivan Adily teaches a literacy class.