Nr. 141 - July 2014

Women at Work SEKEM School RLA Conference Special Support New Bamboo Flutes Laureates Appeal Editorial at Naturetex for the Pupils to African Union

Dear Readers, Empowering Women for a in 2012 SEKEM together with the German Society for Interna- Balanced Society in tional Cooperation (GIZ) had laid The development consultant Anna Kölling has been supporting SEKEM’s the first foundations for the cre- Naturetex in the creation of a work environment better suited to young ation of a work environment that women since the beginning of the year. She reports on the project’s goals. reflects the specific social and cultural conditions of the lives of both men and women in Egypt. At that time, staff at SEKEM’s company Naturetex had closely examined its value chain with the help of its German part- ners. The managers of the pro- ject wished to better understand the challenges women face in the workplace in Egypt and how their needs for permanent gain- ful employment can be better fulfilled.

The beginning of 2014 then saw the launch of a new, follow- up project with the GIZ which aimed to take concrete meas- ures towards improving the situation and examining the eventual results of the inter- Knowing what‘s available: Employees of Naturetex create a public board that informs about available education courses. ventions. The German develop- ment consultant Anna Kölling is in charge of the project and in new cooperation between SEKEM society. Therefore, SEKEM was always this issue reported on the first A and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für fully aware that girls and women need results on the way to creating Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) special support due to their disadvan- truly equal working conditions started at the beginning of 2014 on the taged position in Egyptian society, espe- and appropriate personal devel- SEKEM Farm. Focusing on measures cially in terms of economic opportunities opment opportunities. to increase girls’ and women’s rights at and independence. SEKEM always sup- the working place I am newly deployed ported women at work and provided by GIZ as a development advisor work- them with women-friendly workplaces Your Team of Editors ing closely with SEKEM in its different either within its companies or educa- components. tional institutions.

Find SEKEM also on the Internet at: The balance between women and To deepen existing efforts SEKEM men is the cornerstone for a balanced started an initiative to foster women’

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marriage, but their future husbands and/ or their families are opposing this idea. I found out as well, that many of the girls didn’t know about the courses for addi- tional skills and other activities which the company is already offering. Therefore, the first step was establishing an infor- mation board which was put in a place which girls are usually using in their break times. Also the men were encour- aged to make an information board, but as expected it took them a couple of weeks longer than the girls who were highly motivated.

Since it is equally important to sen- sitize men about the importance of work in a woman’s life, we started film screenings with short films from the ANA HUNNA media campaign of EconoWin, which are all focusing on women at work in four different Arab countries. The screenings were followed by a dis- All together: Anna Kölling, who leads the project for the GIZ, with a co-worker at Naturetex. cussion with male and female employ- ees about how important work is for a woman, not only for bread winning but rights in their working life in early as focal points of their cooperation. also for the development of one’s per- 2012 in cooperation with the GIZ pro- Until the end of 2013 several activities sonality. I am quite sure that women and gram EconoWin (Economic Integration have been undertaken like trainings for men alike will have left these discus- of women in the MENA region). The NatureTex employees, courses for addi- sions with new ideas, maybe thinking entry point for the intervention was tional skills like computer, alphabetiza- differently about the issue. NatureTex, SEKEM’s company for tion and languages as well as measures organic cotton textiles and toys, where to increase the motivation of female staff Employment Gives Strength a Gender Sensitive Value Chain Analysis members by awareness raising sessions and Self-Confidence (GSVCA) was conducted in coopera- with a consultant from GIZ. tion with staff members from EconoWin, Beside these awareness raising ses- sions we are motivating women to fur- NatureTex and the SEKEM Development Capacity Building, Sensitising, ther develop their skills. We will also Foundation. International expertise Improved Support came in from the globally operating extend capacity building measures within SEKEM in the future. Plus, part company Mesopartner, well-known for It became obvious that a person with of my task is the establishment of out- its experiences in participative value expertise in gender issues was needed reach activities to the communities close chain development processes. Several who could dedicate him/herself to the to SEKEM by linking the external work- workshops, interviews and meetings project on a daily basis to further develop shops with NatureTex and encourage took place with different stakeholders sustainable structures within SEKEM to women to open new businesses. like farmers, female and male employ- empower women in their professional ees in NatureTex, external workshop life. As a result, I am now working as During my two-year employment I owners, retailers and marketing/sales a development advisor with SEKEM hope to be able to stimulate women experts in order to find out which obsta- and have started to cooperate with all from rural areas to take their chances cles girls and women are facing in the stakeholders with the overall goal to and achieve more, and to motivate them different sections of the value chain. decrease the turnover of female employ- to appreciate work as an important ees in NatureTex and get more women value in their lives. It provides them with Women’s Rights at Naturetex into employment. In my first weeks I had self-confidence and determination. extensive conversations with the female As a result of the GSVCA NatureTex employees to understand their profes- Anna Kölling Anna Kölling, M. A. works for ECONOWIN and and EconoWin agreed on career devel- sional situation. Almost all of them told is based in Cairo. Her interests are with opment and capacity building, aware- me that they want to continue work after interculturality, religion and gender roles. ness raising about the importance of work in a woman’s life, the development You can visit SEKEM yourself: More information: of the external workshops, which mainly www.SEKEM-reisen.de ! http://econowin.org employ women and a marketing strategy www.aventerra.de http://ana-hunna.org/

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Bamboo Flutes Project Seeks Successor for SEKEM School Each year, Karin Posthumus is travelling to SEKEM to supply the local school with the necessary utensils for varied music lessons. Now a successor is sought by the Dutch SEKEM Friends.

curriculum. Over the years, the collab- oration between Karin Posthumus and them intensified, however, and the les- sons using the bamboo flutes has been an integral part of the teaching plans ever since.

Even before the Egyptian summer hol- idays come to an end every year, Karin Posthumus manufactures new flutes together with the teachers and works with them to create new lesson materi- als. When school starts, Mrs. Posthumus is present in flute lessons for a while to directly help the teachers. This way, they can witness first-hand how the lessons are supposed to be taught and receive the necessary practical support. In addi- tion, Mrs. Posthumus advises the teach- ers after school by providing them with valuable feedback on their own teach- ing styles. She lives in SEKEM for 3 to 4 weeks every year, sometimes two times a year.

Musical instruction is largely absent from Egyptian governmental plans for teacher training. It is thanks to the ini- tiative of Mrs. Posthumus, that choir lessons also feature prominently on the SEKEM School’s teaching plans. Support by the Dutch SEKEM circle of The children at the SEKEM School greatly enjoy the possibility to use new instruments in class. friends will remain necessary for the foreseeable future, though, because the training of new teachers requires their his year, Karin Posthumus from the her with the question if she wanted to ongoing training. T Netherlands has been travelling to introduce the use of bamboo flutes SEKEM already for the 14th time to man- to SEKEM’s school teachers and A Successor for Karin Posthumus? ufacture bamboo flutes together with the instruct them in their use. Thus, in 2004, teachers of SEKEM School and to assist Posthumus travelled to Egypt for the first However, Karin Posthumus is now them during their first steps in using time and then started this long-standing considering transferring her engage- these instruments in dedicated musical project with SEKEM. ment to a successor due to her age. The lessons. Dutch friends would be glad if someone could be found who would visit SEKEM Hand-Made Flutes for Mrs. Posthumus engagement has a ideally as a music teacher for 9 months a the SEKEM School long history. Karin Posthumus had orig- year. Fortunately, an intern at SEKEM will inally got the idea to support SEKEM’s continue her work for a while. Interested musical teaching during a journey In addition to the students, the parties may contact the friends at http:// through Egypt. Not long after that trip, School teachers also had to take their www.SEKEMvrienden.nl. Mieke van Asbeck, initiator of the Dutch time of getting used to the new instru- SEKEM circle of friends, approached ments as well as the new subject on the Dick Blokker, Karin Posthumus

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30-Year Anniversary of German SEKEM Friends Demonstrates Success of Cultural Cooperation

o mark the 30th anniversary of SEKEM’s support association in TGermany, a large number of the local friends of SEKEM celebrated the initia- tive’s work at the Liederhalle Stuttgart on 17 May 2014. Here and for the first time, participants were offered a rare opportunity to gain insights into the work of the Egyptian ensemble and its training in the country. The Egyptian eurythmy training is among the many cultural and social projects in SEKEM that could be supported with the sup- port of German and European donors in recent years.

Several poems in the Arabic language were spoken by two Egyptian narrators. They had been trained by the German Dorothea Walter, who has been support- ing SEKEM personally for many years. She also provided participants of the event with the necessary background on The SEKEM Eurythmy Ensemble under the guidance of Martina Dinkel and Christoph Graf. Arabic poetry throughout the entire pro- gramme. In a clear and concise way, she succeeded in conveying many insight Martina Dinkel and Christoph Graf, who Dinkel and all the assistants in the back- into the richness of the Arab language were also present at the event. ground, which have made this trip to and its manifold artistic expressions possible. Particularly notewor- through short summaries of the pieces The model of eurythmy training in thy is the cooperation with five students performed on stage. Musically, Sherif Egypt is itself a “one-of-a-kind” pro- of the Youth Seminar Stuttgart under Moustafa accompanied the ensemble. ject. The students have the ability to the direction of Dietlinde Hattori. With actually work in addition to their training, them, the poem „God is the Orient, God Great Force of Expression both at the eurythmy school in SEKEM is the Occident“ was rehearsed and per- and inside SEKEM companies, partly formed in Arabic and German. The semi- in eurythmy therapy with students, and The performances itself were particu- narians at the institute come from Korea, even at the Heliopolis University with its larly impressive in terms of the great Japan and Germany, thus through the own students. force with which the ensemble members eurythmy performance, the Middle East expressed their artistic understand- truly met the Far East. ing of the matter through their mobility, Visible Results of International In this part of the program, the par- the wide dynamic range of their physi- Cultural Cooperation ticipants also worked on poems of cal performance, and the harmonious Khalil Gibran and Johann Wolfgang von interaction. This proved to be a sur- The SEKEM choir supported the Goethe in Arabic translation. Adonis prise for many participants, as the prac- Stuttgart performance under the direc- added a special accent to the selection tical experience by the individual artists tion of Konstanze Abouleish. The excep- as a contemporary poet, and the two ranged from one to twelve years. That tionally strong applause was an audible French and Arab composers Erik Satie such a tremendous difference in expe- sign of the gratitude of the audience. It and Gamal Abdelrahiem gave the per- rience could be brought into such har- thanked the performers not only for formances a further multicultural colour. mony on stage testified to the teaching the „visible“ performance, but also the skills of the two eurythmy instructors „invisible“, organisational one by Martina Sandra Bloch, Martina Dinkel

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RLA-Laureates Call on African Union Governments to Implement Ecological Organic Agriculture in Africa

group of eleven award-winning experts working across Africa has Aappealed to governments of the African Union to develop ecological organic agriculture on the continent. The laure- ates of the , often referred to as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”, who met in Cairo for a 3-day con- ference, signed a joint appeal calling on the African Union Commission and its NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA), to implement their road- map for Ecological Organic Agriculture in Africa.

With regard to the latest findings of the 2014 IPCC report and to the “grave consequences for food security in Africa,” they also called on governments to implement the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security and invest 10 per cent of national budgets into eco- logical organic agriculture including Participants of the first regional conference for the laureates of the „Right research and development, job crea- Livelihood Award“ came together for several days in SEKEM. tion and rural development. The UN has declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming. Tenadam Bekele Wolde, representa- exploitation in protected areas, to can- tive of Dr. Catherine Hamlin’s Fistula cel exploration contracts within the “We are worried that international cor- Hospital in Ethiopia, MOSOP President boundaries of the Virunga National Park porations are working with the govern- Legborsi Pyagbara from Nigeria, and to respect all areas designated as ment to cultivate large areas of land for Guillaume Harushimana from Centre World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. agribusiness. The threat is already at our Jeunes Kamenge in Burundi, and envi- door“, said Nomewende Joël Ouedraogo ronmental activist René Ngongo from About the Right Livelihood Award of the Fédération Naam in Burkina Faso. the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Signatories to the appeal are recipi- The Right Livelihood Award was estab- ents of the Right Livelihood Award work- Other petitions signed to lished in 1980 to honour and support ing across Africa: renowned Nigerian protect Africa’s future those „offering practical and exemplary environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey, answers to the most urgent challenges President of the Chadian Association During the regional conference facing us today“. It has become widely for the Promotion and Defense of of African Right Livelihood Award known as the ‚Alternative Nobel Prize‘ Human Rights, Jacqueline Moudeina, Recipients, the Laureates also collec- and there are now 153 Laureates from 64 Representative of the First People of tively appealed to the Nigerian gov- countries. The annual Award Ceremony the Kalahari, Jumanda Gakelebone, ernment to clean up the oil spills in takes place in the Swedish Parliament Executive Director of Federation Naam Ogoniland, as recommended 3 years Building in December, with support by in Burkina Faso, Joel Ouedraogo, Dr ago in a UNEP report. Also, they called parliamentarians. , founder of the bio- on the government of the DRC and oil dynamic farm SEKEM in Egypt, Helmy company Soco International to respect Right Livelihood Award Foundation Abouleish, SEKEM’s Managing Director, national laws and regulations which Hans R. Herren, agronomist and ento- outlaw all activities harmful to the envi- More information: mologist from Switzerland, Matron Sr. ronment, including oil exploration and ! http://www.rightlivelihood.org/cairo2014.html

SEKEM Insight | July 2014 | Page 5 Impressions

Impressions from SEKEM

t the end of May, a film crew from the German studio “Denkmal Film” specialising in topic of sustainability came to Egypt for a week to shoot footage for a film on the subject of compost. The film, which is scheduled to come to German cinemas in the coming year, shall bear the titleA „The End of Genetic Engineering“, or „Code of Survival“. Part of the film was already shot in Darjeeling on the „Ambootia Farm“, an organic tea plantation which has been working with SEKEM for a long time. Another part of the movie focuses on organic farming in Germany. Finally, the film will also deal with organic farming under extreme conditions as exemplified by the case of SEKEM. In this part, it will mainly focus on the cultivation of the desert using compost. The film crew travelled around the SEKEM Farm and its subsidiary farm in the oasis of Baharya in the company of Angela Hofmann, who is responsible for organic farming at SEKEM. For details on the work of “Denkmal Film”, please see the website: http://www.denkmalfilm.tv.

SEKEM Insight | July 2014 | Page 6 News in Brief

City of Stuttgart Presents Dr. Ibrahim Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish Speaks at KU Graz Abouleish with Apple Tree for SEKEM

very large circle of friends from near he 10 year anniversary of SEKEM and far came together on 17 May Austria provided the pleasant occa- atA the Stuttgart Liederhalle to celebrate Tsion for the visit of Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish many years of successful networking to Graz, the city where he himself stud- by the local SEKEM friends. Dr. Ibrahim ied around 40 years ago. Dr. Abouleish Abouleish and Helmy Abouleish were spoke as part of a choir concert at able to join the German SEKEM friends the Art University Graz on „Art and in an atmospheric setting and provided Sustainable Development“ on 21 May for an enjoyable morning and afternoon 2014. The “György Ligeti Room” of the for the many participants who had come. „House of Music and Musical Theatre“ In keeping with its motto to act as a cul- to unify East and West, introduced par- was packed with visitors. tural bridge builder, the German asso- ticipants to his “West-Eastern Divan”. ciation has been looking to facilitate The organisers thank also her for her As a first retrospective, SEKEM Austria the dialogue between East and West as contribution. have collected a selection of photos and well as in Germany for the past 30 years some footage of a radio interview with “30 Years of German SEKEM Friends” resulting in many successful develop- Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish originally created represented an occasion for a celebra- ment initiatives in Egypt, Stuttgart and by the web radio of the four universities tion that warranted a closer look at its abroad. of Graz. Both are available via the link. history. Dr. Hans Werner, a close friend

The organizers of the event would of SEKEM almost right from the begin- Source: SEKEM Austria like to thank Secretary of the State ning, described its development from Klaus-Peter Murawski as a representa- his point of view in impressive words tive of the State of Baden-Württemberg which are going to be published in a spe- for his words of welcome, in which he cial report in the next issue of SEKEM expressed his strong appreciation of Insight. the SEKEM initiative and its ideals. The A discussion group on the topic of city of Stuttgart, which has maintained „Building Bridges Between East and town twinning relations with Cairo for West“ in the afternoon focused on the more than 35 years, was represented by topic of the importance and necessity of Director of the City Ms. Klett-Eininger. partnership in development. The mod- Together with Dr. Frederic Stephen, Ms. erator Dr. Martin Kilgus directed the Klett-Eininger presented to the Stuttgart event and elicited stimulating contribu- branch of the SEKEM community an tions from a number of guests. Two core apple tree as a special gesture. The plant ideas became particularly clear: Without More information: is currently looking for its counterpart to global cooperation, the future develop- http://bit.ly/1ryEP4I be planted directly on the SEKEM Farm, ! ment of all mankind will no longer be as well as students here and there, who possible. And: In order to build the future wish to engage themselves in its nurs- together, all people need to become ing and care. receptive to this future in a much more imaginative way. Education institutions Art as development is a key ingre- need to teach the abilities required to dient of SEKEM and its work that has Masthead: do so, Dr. Abouleish stated. One way to The editors of SEKEM Insight wish to shaped its initiatives from the begin- thank all contributors to this issue. do that is through the arts. With a tour ning in all its phases of development, Editor: through SEKEM’s history in pictures, Dr. Bijan Kafi, Christina Anlauf Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish, the founder of Roland Schaette concluded the event. Contact: SEKEM stressed in his speech. It acts as SEKEM-Insight c/o SEKEM Holding a “living power source” to the Egyptian May the event be a kick-off for new P.O.Box 2834, El Horreya, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt community. As an impressive result developments, for what the future may [email protected] of this long-standing commitment to teach us. The SEKEM Friends Germany artistic work, Dr. Abouleish named the Pictures: thank all those who have made ​​the day 5: Right Livelihood Award; 1-3, 6: SEKEM Eurythmy Ensemble and the possible, specifically the volunteers who SEKEM; 4, 7: SEKEM-Freunde SEKEM Choir both of which also per- have made the wonderful atmosphere No republication without written consent by the publisher. formed at Stuttgart (see story on page possible, particularly in the foyer. 4). In addition, Mrs. Caroline Wispler, an expert in Goethe‘s cultural work aiming Waltraud Bandel, SEKEM Friends

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