In 2020, we needed for the renewal of Missio support a letter of recommendation of either the Apostolic Vicar in Egypt, the Apostolic Nuncio or the Coptic Catholic Patriarch. The previous recommendation had come from Bishop Adel Zaky, O.F.M., in function from September 1, 2009, until he sadly passed away on July 21, 2019. The Apostolic Vicar is responsible for the various non-Egyptian congregations such as Comboni Fathers and Sisters, the Jesuits, the Dominicans with their fantastic library, etc. These were the very congregations we had cooperated with in previous decades. Since it was uncertain whether or not a new Apostolic Vicar would be consecrated before Missio’s deadline, several of our Catholic friends wrote letters of recommendation to the Apostolic Nuncio and similar ones to the Coptic Catholic Patriarch. Fortunately, Fr. Claudio Lurati, was consecrated before the deadline of Missio. He, of course, received the different letters of recommendation and wrote the recommendation to Missio for continued support for another three-year period, 2021-2023. We were very pleased that Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Nicolas Thévenin, also recommended an extension of Missio support to CIDT and indirectly to CAWU since CIDT staff support CAWU.

This letter is one of several letters of recommendation that were written in this period of great uncertainty since without Missio's support we would not be able to survive. The motivation of the authors of the letters differed, for some the focus was on the importance to continue working on the database and for others the focus was more on the secondary school education CAWU provides to African refugee children.