Nobel Peace Prize nominee Mama Maggie to speak at Lipscomb this Thursday
Lacey Klotz |
Maggie Gobran, an eight-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee who is commonly known as “Mama Maggie” to thousands of children and families in Cairo, Egypt’s garbage slum, is set to speak in a Lipscomb University chapel presentation, Thursday, Sept. 22 from 10:45-11:45 a.m. in Collins Alumni Auditorium. 
During chapel, Mama Maggie will share about her innovative, transformational work with Stephen’s Children, a nonprofit organization she founded in 1997 that serves impoverished families in Cairo’s zabala or garbage slums. Mama Maggie will also spend time answering questions from Lipscomb students.
Often referred to as the “Mother Theresa of the Cairo,” Mama Maggie inspires Cairo’s Coptic Orthodox Christian community to fearlessly follow Christ.
In a recent article, Fox News describes how ISIS brutally beheaded 21 Coptic Christians, and how strong each of their faith was in the face of death. The article continues to explain how seven out of the 21 men who were beheaded came out of Mama Maggie’s schools, five of which she knew by name.
Raised in an upper-middle class family, Mama Maggie became a successful professional, first on the management team of a marketing firm and later as a university professor of computer science. As she and her husband were raising their own children, Mama Maggie’s vision of “motherhood” began to grow as she dreamt of reaching out to children in need.
Through a local outreach opportunity aimed at distributing food and clothing to families, Mama Maggie was gripped by the children’s despair and hunger for love, acceptance and value in society.
Now 65 years old, Mama Maggie has served and educated over 30,000 low-income families in overwhelmingly Muslim Egypt, where Coptic Christians struggle as low-class citizens.
To learn more about Mama Maggie, visit: www.stephenschildren.org/.