The donation of sheikh Alsharawi and his friends were the first seed for the establishment of 57357.
As years go by, Egypt and the Arab world still remember the great sheikh Mohamed Metwally Alsharawi, who earned everybody’s love with his modest personality, his great religious knowledge and his unique style in gathering people around religion.
57357 staff and administration cannot forget to give credit to sheikh Alsharawi for contributing to the setting up of an upgraded pediatric oncology department at the NCI of , where his support was the first seed for improving the conditions of Egypt’s children with cancer .
The story takes us back to the end of the eighties, when the National Cancer Institute, NCI, was suffering from severe shortages in equipment and supplies and high mortality of sick children with cancer. One day the institute witnessed the death of 13 sick children out of 16 in the department. The department’s young doctor, Dr. Sherif Abuel Naga felt helpless. He sadly left the institute while determined to resign. At this time he thought about sheikh Alsharawi who used to go to a restaurant nearby the institute. He went there to find the great sheikh with three of his friends, Abdullah Salam, Ahmed Abu Shakra and Ahmed Abdullah Teama. The doctor joined them and started telling them about the department’s difficult conditions. Right away, each of the four friends decided to donate 50 pounds on a monthly basis to fix the department’s shortcomings and buy medical supplies.
This was the start of a rising interest among the population to in improving the conditions of Egypt’s children with cancer and upgrading NCI’s pediatric oncology department. The number of beds in the department increased and recovery rates started to rise.While the donations increased, the dream of establishing a hospital specialized in children’s cancer started to materialize . Hence the donation of sheikh Alsharawi and his friends were the seed for the realization of the dream.
To date, after the death of the sheikh and his friends, the monthly donation is still collected through their sons, and at the Hospital, we still remember the great sheikh.
Sheikh Alsharawi used to talk about sadaka, and in this respect he said: Sadaka increases earnings, blessing them and making them grow. He also said: satisfaction, patience and donations prevent affliction.
Because of his belief in the importance of sadaka, he was keen to help people in need where he spent money to help his village by building places for education, for orphans and for treatment.
Here we remember prophet Mohamed’s saying: When a man dies, his deeds come to an end except for three things: Sadaqah Jariyah (ceaseless charity); a knowledge which is beneficial, or a virtuous descendant who prays for him (for the deceased)