Hanna Hartmann Hosni: Egypt’s Unsung Hero

This morning I learned that Hanna Hartmann Hosni, German married to an Egyptian, the woman I call Egypt’s Unsung Hero, is to receive the highest civilian award from the German government. The Bundesverdienstorden will be present to her by the German President Joachim Gauck. Hanna earned every bit of this award through her many years of service to the impoverished and largely ignored street girls of Egypt. Devoting over 25 years of her life to making even a small dent in their lives, Hanna spends so much of her time and energy raising funds, organizing fund-raisers, conscripting students from the DEO [Deutsch Evangelical Ober Schule], forming committees of parents and teachers, and fighting the governmental powers who have so often resisted her demands for change.

Hanna and some of the Islahaya girls

Hanna’s efforts in just one Islahaya, located in the Cairo suburb of Agouza, have finally reached the attention of some in power who recognize what she is about. Nothing done by her is for personal gain or glory, she feels so much for these girls, and if she had it in her power, she’d most likely try to do the same for all homeless street girls. At one time, she did the same for the boys in a Cairo Islahaya, but the boys are not in the same dire straits in which the girls find themselves.

Hanna does not limit her tireless energy to street girls; she also expends much effort on the Syrian refugees now pouring into Egypt, in addition to aiding the Caritas charity with the lepers of Abou Zhabel, an area outside Cairo.

A few words must be said about her husband, another unsung Egyptian hero. For the past 25 years he has supported his wife in every way possible. Without his help in dealing with Egyptian authorities, his company’s services in building a decent kitchen, making necessary repairs to the Agouza Islahaya, Hanna’s work load would be more difficult to bear. Souhail Hosni deserves to be as proud of his wife and also of his own selflessness in being her chief supporter.

Without the work of these two people these street girls captured in their Islahaya [meaning in Arabic a place ‘to fix’] would indeed be in the devil’s own dead end in their lives. Hanna along with all who support and work with her provides that small beacon of light. It’s time the Egyptian government jumped on board and quit annihilating these girls Il Binait Dol, to the refuse heap of untouchables and give them back lives which through no fault of their own, have been stolen from them.