Nr. 142 - August 2014

How It Began Agriculture SEKEM Health The German Helmy Abouleish in New Website Editorial SEKEM Friends The Launches

Dear Readers, The Beginning of SEKEM and you know how it all began with SEKEM? Do you know how the of its German Supporters long-standing and extremely German-Egyptian relations: In his contribution, Dr. Hans Werner, physician fruitful relationship between and long-time supporter of SEKEM, recalls the beginnings of SEKEM Germany, Austria and SEKEM that eventually led to the creation of the German “SEKEM Friends”. in Egypt originally came about? Dr. Hans Werner, a physician who still personally assists SEKEM’s development today and has been since the early 80s together with his wife Elfriede Werner, recalls the beginnings of SEKEM and of the German SEKEM Friends in his post in this issue. He remembers how the foundation was laid for a partnership that has already lasted more than 35 years.

In addition, in this issue we report on Helmy Abouleish’s trip to The Netherlands, where he met with a number of students from an organic education insti- tute and from the renowned University of Wageningen in a debate on the future of eco-agri- How everything began: Elfriede and Hans Werner visited SEKEM at the beginning of the 80s and laid the foundational stone for a long-standing friendship and collaboration. culture.

Finally, we report on the rede- arly in December 1983, on the In January of 1981, Elfriede Werner sign of the Internet page that E 9th of the month, to be precise, and Frieda Gögler stumbled into a young presents SEKEM’s medical Elfriede Werner together with Renate woman (the teacher Monika Kuschfeld), products. They have received Raubald, Elke von Laue, Helga Yan, then unknown to them, in the great pil- their own attractive and highly Uta Lochmüller and Christian Helms lared hall of Karnak (Luxor) in Egypt. Mrs. innovative website for the first founded the German SEKEM Friends, Kuschfeld told the two of an anthropo- time. the SEKEM initiative’s first private sup- sophical initiative in the Northeastern port association based in a European desert of Egypt, lead by physicians, Your Team of Editors Country. The Friends set themselves the pharmacists and farmers who were task of promoting the SEKEM initiative in seeking for practical assistance. The Find SEKEM also on the Internet at: Egypt, an Islamic initiative. But how did it initiator was said to be one Dr. Ibrahim come to this decision? Abouleish. Elfriede was intrigued and

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individual advancements he intends At the end of this first period of its life to embellish Mashtul with in this let- came a serious economic crisis that ter. They basically encompass what has led to health problems for Dr. Ibrahim been achieved in SEKEM today. Abouleish. In 1985, he spent five months in Öschelbronn, an important time for The Austrian city of Graz was his first his recovery and for SEKEM. Together destination of travel. At the local uni- with Dr. Abouleish, we entered into many versity, he studied technical chem- talks on the further development of the istry, medicine and philosophy; next initiative and were able to establish new he studied European culture, particu- contacts, such as to Klaus Fintelmann larly its history of the arts. He passed for the education programmes of the his exams with top marks, worked as planned SEKEM School, or to Winfried a scientist in Austria, Germany, and Reindl as an architect for a large part the United States of America, and was of the future buildings that would even- then awarded a contract to install and tually come to represent the distinctive develop a research centre in the Austria “SEKEM style” of construction. city of St. Johann. There he met Martha Werth, a music teacher, and through her A groundbreaking ceremony for he encountered . SEKEM on the main farm in October 1985 was then the beginning of a rapid growth A trip back to Egypt in 1975 allowed of specifically its agricultural activities. him see first-hand the major changes Through an intensive cooperation of our brought about by the socialist dictator- association’s board together with the Frieda Gögler significantly shaped the beginnings ship of Nasser. This shocked him in such SEKEM, it quickly became possible to of the German support association. a way that he dreamed up the vision of construct numerous cultural institutions SEKEM and, after his idea had matured, over the years, which were funded by he decided to return to Egypt and to a number of people from Germany and did everything to arrange for a visit of realize it as an exemplary solution to the later other European countries. This way this desert farm still during our stay in modern problems of Egypt. Cairo. And she succeeded! SEKEM and its supporters were able to develop an initiative that today is per- The Beginnings of the When we arrived on the little patch haps unique worldwide in terms of diver- SEKEM Friends of desert land just a short while after- sity and cultural complexity. wards, we were approached by a man Elfriede, I, and Frieda Gögler returned whom everyone just called “Dr. Ibrahim”. It has been a special experience for to Germany Full of energy and with the He had appeared from a large, round the German Friends to witness during idea to spread – in writing and through mud hut, raised his hands in greeting these 30 years the emergence of a com- speeches – what we had experienced in and exclaimed: “I knew that you would prehensive educational system from Egypt after our first trip. Frieda Gögler come!”. And this Dr. Ibrahim immediately infant care groups to a university includ- in particular put herself behind the pro- treated us like an old friend. Elfriede, ing a vocational school, a school for the ject of getting 40 Allgäu cows shipped Frieda Gögler and I left the SEKEM Farm handicapped, an institute providing liter- to SEKEM together with young milk- deeply impressed and with the firm acy courses as well as a medical cen- maid Angela Hoffmann and the young resolve to help this young, still fledgling tre offering many different disciplines. Martin Abrecht. Frieda Gögler was able initiative. But who was this “Dr. Ibrahim”? Another project, co-financed by the to acquire a loan of $ 200,000 from the European Union, also warrants men- Charitable Trust Pforzheim to purchase tion: The “13-Villages-Project” promotes The Beginnings of SEKEM the cows. This loan was later transformed healthier lifestyles in the communities into a gift by the GLS Treuhand. This way, As a fourteen year old boy, Ibrahim surrounding SEKEM: street cleaning, the foundation was laid for the German Abouleish finds a book by the German waste separation and disposal, sani- “SEKEM Friends”. Elfriede Werner took poet and scientist J. W. von Goethe tation, hygiene education, support to the brunt of the responsibility of running place in the library of his uncle, reads it, pregnant women, childbirth and infant the association as Chairman until 2000 and immediately decides that he must care education and micro loans are part and Renate Raubald supported her as later visit the places where Goethe had of it. Treasurer until 2009. lived and worked. At age 19, he secretly The year 2006 brought a major leaves his family, leaving only a letter During the first 7 years, the SEKEM change for the association: Its loca- addressed to his father: “When I get farm experienced substantial difficulties tion was moved to Stuttgart. There, home again...”, he writes, and then con- mostly from their immediate neighbours. board member Waltraud Bandel with tinues explaining that intends to trans- great effort had established connec- form the village of his youth, Mashtul, You can visit SEKEM yourself: tions to the city’s administration. Cairo into “a shining centre of development www.SEKEM-reisen.de in Egypt”. He also recounts all the www.aventerra.de Continued on page 3

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Helmy Abouleish Visits Dutch Organisations Meeting Students On a trip to the Netherlands, Helmy Abouleish recently visited the Warmonderhof and two universities to discuss the importance of organic farming with local students and staff.

he Dutch association of the Friends community and from his family by “sav- how organic farming in a dry climate is of SEKEM (Vriendenkring SEKEM) ing the world” 24 hours a day. After his working and some students certainly will Trecently managed to organise a series release, Helmy recalls these 100 days do so. In between he managed to have of meetings between Helmy Abouleish, in prison as a wake-up call which ena- an interview with the Dutch branch of Executive Manager of the SEKEM com- bled him to reflect on his life more eas- Oikocredit, which has supported SEKEM panies, and students from the Bernard ily. He thus decided to spend more time for the last few years, and to attend the Lievegoed University for Liberal Arts with his family and with the workers on SEKEM Friends’ annual meeting. in the Netherlands, the Dutch train- the farm, as this is the place where sav- Helmy, with his visit, was able to win ing centre for bio-dynamic farm- ing the world actually happens for him the hearts of many young people for the ing Warmonderhof, and the Studium in practice. He confessed that talking SEKEM vision, which could result in a Generale programme of the University about his personal life publicly for the stronger cooperation between SEKEM of Wageningen. first time instead of SEKEM was quite a and the Netherlands once these people new experience. find their way into professional lives. Learning from the Future A talk was scheduled the next day at Hendrik Jan Bakker During a dinner on 16 May, Helmy Warmonderhof, where some 40 grade Vriendenkring Sekem (Netherlands) Abouleish first shared his ideas on learn- one and part-time adult students were ing and acting “from the future” with a eager to learn about organic farming in a selected group of students from the dry climate, which is quite the opposite More information: Bernard Lievegoed University. In his of the situation in the Netherlands where ! http://www.warmonderhof.nl view, students today should develop 80% of the arable land is below sea level skills to shape and cope with yet and thus has to be constantly drained. Continued from page 2 Afterwards, the students showed Helmy unknown future circumstances rather is a twinning partner of Stuttgart. Thus, their fields, and he cordially invited them than learn solutions for problems reflect- SEKEM was able to be included in asso- to visit the SEKEM farm during or after ing developments already in the past. In ciated programmes. Waltraud Bandel is their time at the training centre. Helmy’s view, it is the duty and oppor- to be thanked for her dedication towards tunity of higher education institutions, to expanding the Friends’ public relations. teach just these capacities. Can Organic Agriculture Dr. Roland Schaette‘ is the current CEO Alleviate the Food Crisis? of the association, Stefan Rivoir acts as After the dinner, Helmy told an audi- treasurer and Waltraud Bandel, Magdy ence of over 50 students from the univer- At Wageningen University, which, Abdalla, and Claus-Wilhelm Hoffmann sity, the local Rudolf-Steiner-School and according to its website, is dedicated to are part of the board. Dr. Bruno their teachers how he enjoyed exploring “healthy food and a living environment”, Sandkühler is a particularly active mem- the desert by motorcycle after moving but in fact strongly supports large-scale ber and I myself contribute as a senior. from Austria to Egypt, and how over time chemical farming methods including he took over increasingly more respon- genetically modified organisms (GMO), 30 years of promotion of SEKEM also sibilities in the firm from his father, until Helmy took part in a debate about means heartfelt thanks for 30 years of eventually he came to represent SEKEM whether organic farming – and more to contributions to the many volunteers in more than 100 national and interna- precisely biodynamic farming – may be and sponsors, not least the board mem- tional committees on organic farm- the solution to overcoming environmen- bers of the SEKEM Friends. They have ing, economic reform and sustainable tal issues and the world food problem, or contributed, together with Egyptian development. if the combination of GMO and factory and European executive personnel, to farming provides better solutions. the realisation of the SEKEM Vision Saving the World, 24 Hours a Day Dr. originally had The 80 students, many with an inter- dreamed of. It was not before he was taken into national background, were very inter- Hans Werner custody during the Egyptian revolution ested in Helmy’s views and had many of 2011, a place where he remained for questions, which he answered clearly almost four months, that he realised he and openly. He invited the students to More information: had become alienated from the SEKEM visit SEKEM to see with their own eyes ! http://www.SEKEM-freunde.de

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Website for SEKEM‘s Herbal Medicine Receives Redesign

or many years, SEKEM has been selling non-prescrip- Ftion health-promoting products under the brand name “SEKEM” in Egypt. Now this product line has finally got a new website all of its own, on which all individ- ual preparations, supplements, herbs, and teas can be presented in their greatest detail.

The products, which have been valued by our customers for years, are being presented in the four dis- tinct areas of “Regime”, “Mother & Child”, “Medicinal Herbs” and “Nutritional Supplements”. The con- sistently high standard of quality in this product segment, of course, a big plus.

The site follows the concept of emo- tions stimulated by images. The cus- tomer is addressed by large, colourful, meaningful images, and thus guided through the website step by step, image by image.

The main pages – “About Us” and “Products” – have been built according to the „One-Page-Principle“, meaning that all content is displayed on a sin- gle page, with each of the sections sep- arated only by visual markers. Menus appear only when the user moves within the site and they assist in the naviga- tion. The visitor does not have to click through several nested pages.

The new site is only a first step. She comes to live only through extensions and posts that remain current. Thus, the pages of “SEKEM” and ATOS Pharma will in the future be supported by a team that will take care not only of the mainte- nance of the pages but also digital customer service.

Thomas Abouleish

SEKEM Insight | August 2014 | Page 4 Impressions

Impressions from SEKEM

ven in Egypt, Spring is the season of birds. Early in the morning at sunrise, it may occasionally seem as if everything that has feathers was clamouring to assure itself how great life is – and, E in fact, it is, particularly on the SEKEM Farm this time of the year! It starts with building the nest almost as soon as the small canopy, outdoor lamp post or anything similar originally chosen has turned out to be unsuitable. You can find all the necessary ingredients for building a nest strewn about the ground around many of the buildings at SEKEM. During the mating season, the pigeons are especially hard to miss – and to hear: The trees on SEKEM are noisy places! Then, a little later, the first young birds appear, and in June we see the most colourful of them: a spe- cies of the halcyon bird variety in bright turquoise common to SEKEM as well as parrots coloured in green as the grass. The old feed the young, and the latter seem obviously seem to be concerned mostly with sitting and waiting. For the parrots, Egypt really is just a place of transit. Now, however, some seem to feel at home with us and also the halcyon birds were rare visitors only a few years ago. Meanwhile, there are just two of the many species common at SEKEM. They are very shy. But once one has the chance to come close to such an especially beautiful being, it’s like being close to a little piece of paradise!

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Healthy Seeds as a Foundation for Cairo Days to be held Life: Cooperation is the Only Way again in November 2014

While that is an approach that is neces- he “Cairo Days 2013” carried out at sary and certain to continue, Sebastian T the Stuttgart Youth Hostel for the Bauer of the Software AG Foundation first time in January 2013 will again be stresses that such funding should leave the event to be this year concerning cur- the “charity corner”: “You have to see rent developments in Egypt. From the the financing of seed protection and 13th to probably the 16th of November, development measures as an invest- interested participants will be invited to ment in the future! Each market partners meet SEKEM staff and those co-work- and the society as a whole [...] should ers from the SEKEM Friends working for have an urgent interest in it to provide for SEKEM’s support in Germany. The event the growth of robust and healthy varie- will again be organised cooperatively by ties in a big way.” The travellers on the „Kulturgutexpress“ debate the German SEKEM Friends, the City of the protection of our seeds in the salon car. Stephan Illi, formerly on the board of Stuttgart and other initiatives. Until then, Demeter Germany, is also convinced that a video of the 2013 days will bring you oughly 160 passengers on the lasting solutions can only be developed back to last year’s event and the pro- R “Kulturgutexpress 2014” were through close cooperation between all gram provides an overview of what to recently seeking for innovative ways to societal stakeholders. “Niche activism expect this time. More information will protect and care for our seeds. The train, markets such as community agriculture be available soon on the website of the in the organisation of which SEKEM and profit certificate models in which SEKEM Friends in Germany. has again participated, rode all the way consumers combine their power of mar- to Donji Kraljevec in Croatia and pro- ket advancement and express their soli- vided the travellers with enough room darity with farmers are in the process of to experiment with their ideas through development thus improving quality and artistic and socio-dynamic means. A variety in the process. Customers want panel discussion on the train gave room to get involved and we need to exploit to an extensive debate on the different this drive!”. aspects of the topic of seed protection Some of the passengers voiced the today. Through its own work in Egypt, idea of ​​supporting seed protection SEKEM continues to strive for the same through a cultural tax. This could estab- goals through biodynamic farming and lish financially equal opportunities. Here, the breeding of its own healthy seeds. the political establishment comes into Mara Müller of the Austrian Association play. The compensatory tax was named More information: for the preservation and development as an already working example: in the ! http://bit.ly/UEQVO4 (Video) of crop diversity, “Noah‘s Ark”, empha- context of seed protection, a license fee http://bit.ly/1nMLl9r (Programme) sized that seed is a cultural asset: “It for those who are today beneficiaries of has emerged through the ‘discussion the processes that man and nature have of humans and plants’. The culture and accomplished together ten thousand needs of the people who shaped the years ago would be conceivable. seed are reflected in it.” Indeed, seeds Organic farming makes high demands that are preserved through breed- Masthead: concerning seed quality as differences The editors of SEKEM Insight wish to ing methods and which are not modi- thank all contributors to this issue. in location and fertility may not be equal- fied in the laboratory, need “guidance”, Editor: ised with synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, Bijan Kafi, Christina Anlauf Christine Nagel, who is a breeder with or fungicides. Rather, each strain com- Contact: Kultursaat e.V., adds. However, the nec- bines different properties. Developments SEKEM-Insight essary knowledge is getting increasingly c/o SEKEM Holding in seed varieties may only come from P.O.Box 2834, El Horreya, lost. Even the professional training pro- Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt this diversity. This can only be ensured [email protected] file of the occupation of a “gardener” if politics, industry, trade and consum- does no longer exist. Plus, the issue of Pictures: ers aim to bring about change together. 1-2: Hans Werner, SEKEM; 6: SEKEM-Freunde funding issue is of special importance. This is exactly what SEKEM is striving for No republication without written So far, new varieties and preservation through its work. consent by the publisher. of common, healthy varieties have been financed through associations and the Bijan Kafi with material by support programmes of foundations. Software AG Foundation

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