Starting out

On the 30th August 1930, Onsi Sawiri was born in Sohag, the Egyptian city known as the ‘Bride of the Nile’ located on the west bank of the famous river. The Sawiris were Coptic Orthodox Christians and owned a 52-acre farm that Onsi, the youngest of four, would eventually be tasked with overseeing when his three brothers followed their father Naguib into law. 

Far from begrudging this responsibility, Onsi thrived in the fields. He attended Cairo University and graduated with a degree in agricultural engineering. After returning to manage the farm for two years, the construction of a new building on the family plot inspired the next level of his ambitions. At just 22 years old, Onsi would establish his own construction company, Onsi & Lamei Co.

“My first job was digging wells in 18 different localities in Upper Egypt,” recalled Mr. Sawiri before his death in 2021. “I was overjoyed. It was a turning point in my life. Construction has since been my passion.”

On New Year’s Eve of 1935, Yousriya Loza was born in Manfalout, an Egyptian city 70 miles north of Sohag. Her father was a local lawyer with an office close to home and a young Yousriya enjoyed a comfortable childhood. 

Unlike many of her contemporaries, she also received a quality education. Just as her mother had done before her, Yousriya attended the American College for Girls in Cairo, which had been founded by the United Presbyterian Church of North America some four decades earlier. At the school’s 1910 inauguration, the then-US President Theodore Roosevelt told the assembled pupils, teachers, and parents: "I do not believe that any nation can rise to permanent greatness unless its women are fitted to play their part and dignity as man should play his."

Roosevelt’s visit came some years before Yousriya attended the school, which is today known as Ramses College, but it was a sentiment she would later embody in both her own life and her future philanthropy and social work.

It was here that Yousriya came to know her first cousin, Suzie Griess, with whom she would build an enduring personal and work relationship. 

"Our mothers were first cousins so I've known her ever since she was at school,” Griess, based in Cairo, explains. “Yousriya is a giver. It’s natural for some people to just want to give. You see somebody with need and you have a lot of resources, so you just give. And that's what she did. Using a lot of her resources for the welfare of others."

In 1952, a military coup sparked the Egyptian Revolution that would bring an end to the country's ruling monarchy. It also hastened the departure of the last remaining British military personnel from bases in the Suez Canal.

Just as Egypt was becoming a republic in 1953, Onsi and Yousriya got married. Yousriya was still just 17 and yet to complete her secondary school education, but a new Egypt led by President Nasser brought new hope, especially for women. Changes in the constitution gave women the right to vote, and sought to prohibit gender discrimination and provide equal opportunities in education and employment. 

Yousriya would soon take advantage of the new possibilities open to her. Meanwhile, new industrialisation and land reforms supported Onsi’s business ambitions and over the next few years, Onsi & Lamei Co. became one of Egypt’s largest general contractors. 

Onsi and Yousriya were blessed with three children; Naguib was the first to arrive in 1954 and was soon joined by Samih in 1957. But, by the time Nassef was born in 1961, Egypt was once again undergoing a period of major upheaval. President Nasser had enacted a wave of socialist reforms across Egypt that nationalised many of the country’s leading businesses. Onsi & Lamei Co was absorbed by this plan and renamed the El Nasr Civil Works Company.

The changing business climate prompted Onsi to explore new avenues outside of his country and before long, he found a more fertile environment for his ambitions in oil-rich Libya. He remained there for 12 years, while Yousriya and their three boys remained at home.  

"Yousriya married very young, and after her husband had to move to Libya to work because the family business was under sequestration during the earlier years of the revolution,” explained Suzie. “Yousriya stayed behind and she did everything so that she could raise her children and give them the best education. And she actually completed her own university education after she got married."

Although she was left to raise her three sons largely on her own, Yousriya had no intention of missing out on the new routes open to her. “I later managed to work for and receive a GCE certificate through the British Council in Cairo,” she recalls. “I then enrolled in Cairo University’s Faculty of Commerce from which I graduated in 1969.”