Victorine Zaidan Kafrouni Scholarship

Victorine Zaidan Kafrouni

Victorine Zaidan was born in Cairo, Egypt, where her parents had emigrated from Lebanon. The Zaidan family was well represented in medical and literary circles, both in Lebanon and in other parts of the world. She married Ishak Hanna Kafrouni, a Syrian born in the city of Homs. Ishak graduated from the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, at age 19, and had come to Egypt to seek fortune; he found it in Victorine.

Victorine and Ishak had six children, and they believed in providing them with the best education. They sacrificed much time, effort and money to send them to private schools where they were provided with choice educational experiences. As a result, two became nurses, two became teachers, and one a physician. One son died at the early age of two.

Severe illnesses struck two of the children: George with typhoid and Laurice with staph infection. Victorine nursed them with much love and compassion around the clock at home, refusing to send them to a hospital. She used extreme caution in order to protect the other children from acquiring these contagious diseases. Following months of untiring care and constant prayer, she restored them back to life and health. She was indeed a nurse, par excellence, in spite of the fact that she never attended a school of nursing.

Victorine made it a habit to read her Bible daily in three languages: French, Arabic and English. Thus, she kept her mind active and alert, and above all, in close communication with God.

This scholarship has been established by her daughter, Laurice Kafrouni Durrant, and is awarded to a nursing student with the potential of being compassionate and altruistic in providing nursing care.