Nr. 124 - Januar 2013
Insight
SEKEM‘s Journal for Culture, Economy, Society and Ecology in Egypt
Editorial Dear Readers, In the last issue we reported on SEKEM’s efforts for a better integration of women into the economic process through a detailed, gender-sensitive analysis of the supply chains at Naturetex, SEKEM’s company for organic textiles. This month we wish to introduce you to extensive EconoWin projected supported by the German GIZ, in which SEKEM also participated.
Affirmative Action
Ethical Business
Better Policies
Integrating Women into Economic Life
Helmy Abouleish Speaks at SUSCON
World Future Council Meets in Abu Dhabi
Sewing Dolls for SEKEM: Four Women Tell Their Stories SEKEM is engaged in the EconoWin project funded by the German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ) to achieve better integration of women into the workforce. Four women working for SEKEM’s textile company tell their very personal stories.
The project covers four areas of action that aim to break down socio-cultural boundaries for the inclusion of women into economic development, that offer guidance to women and other stakeholders, and intend to pursue an active improvement of economic policies enacted in countries of the Middle Eastern. The project is being carried out in Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, and other countries. In a commentary, the journalist Julia Gerlach writes about four women who work for SEKEM in the context of these activities. They tell their own personal stories and share their experiences with of reconciling work and family lives under the conditions of life in rural Egypt on the edge of the Nile Delta.
Your Team of Editors Find SEKEM also on the Internet at:
SEKEM‘s support to improve the economic integration of women often goes new ways in rural Egypt. For instance, by offering ways to integration job and family more easily (archival image).
A
ida Mahmoud Mohammed, 27 years old, heads a workshop in her house. She is mother of one son and lives with her husband and the first wife of her husband with her four kids in a small house in the Village next to SEKEM: “Our days here in the country side start early; we get up at 6 am, feed the animals, get the children ready for school and prepare breakfast for our husband. After finishing the
housework, at around nine, I sit down to work. I am working until it’s time to prepare lunch and I help the children doing their homework. After finishing everything I go back to work in the afternoon. I am working six to eight hours per day. I have just started, so I haven’t seen any money yet, but I pray to God, that I will get a good salary; that the work is worth it. After finishing middle school at SEKEM I worked in the doll factory inside the farm. I liked SEKEM Insight | Januar 2013 | Page 1