African Hope Leaning Centre came into existence in the Spring of 1998. The need for education for Sudanese refugee children and other members of the displaced community was great. Many factors contributed to the need including the economic situation of the African families and their general lack of acceptance and access to services in the Egyptian community. Their lack of legally recognized papers also exacerbated their status. Members of Maadi Community Church (MCC) worked to establish a learning centre that gave a basic Christian-based education. The centre grew to a level that catered for around 500 children from KG2 through to Grade 12 and a lunch was provided each day for both staff and students to support them nutritionally. Health care was also set up with visits from a local doctor once a week to the school and with a yearly health check of all children. It was aimed to employ qualified staff from the African Community to help there to be longer sustainability and also to provide employment within the Refugee group. This presented issues in quality teaching due to low salaries and a lack of available qualified staff. The school expanded to where it caters for students and staff from North and South Sudan, Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, Cameroon, Ghana, Somalia, Nigeria and other African nations.
The school is now in one central location with both Primary and High School running off the one campus, in two shifts. To try and encourage a better learning environment, classes have been capped at a maximum of 25 in each class. This has meant that the numbers of students is now around 450 though many more have applied to join the school and are on a waiting list. The school has implemented a new curriculum, utilizing a combination of the British curriculum and the Sudanese curriculum. The new curriculum is a textbook based program and the school has aimed to improve student outcomes with new teaching methodologies to go with the new curriculum. This again has been a challenge with the current teaching staff but progress is being made. Administratively things are becoming more centrally based through technology in an effort to make it more sustainable. Challenges continue but we are making progress.