The next generation

More than two decades years on, the Foundation has invested more than US$60m towards creating thousands of opportunities and services for nearly 700,000 beneficiaries, many from the most remote and marginalised area of Egypt.

In education, the Foundation has supported 125 nurseries, established 60 community schools in Upper Egypt, and provided scholarships to over a thousand deserving Egyptian students. Through its vocational institutions, thousands more have gone on to become highly-trained technical professionals.

The Sawiris family has always been keen on investing in its community, be it through the arts or education. The greater objective of this is to lift the population out of poverty and lower the unemployment rate among Egyptian youth by ensuring they have access to high quality education.

Through the decades, the Foundation has established numerous schools, programmes, and scholarships through their family foundation with the objective of providing opportunities and access for exceptional Egyptian students to realise their potential, no matter where they come from.

One of their recent programmes focuses on pre-primary education, which was launched with the aim of contributing to improving the quality of educational and health services for children and their families. The programme is backed by funding of approx. EGP 100M, targeting children aged 2-6 years in poor and marginalised communities, and focusses on building capacities of service providers in nurseries, modernising the curriculum in nurseries and increase public awareness of the importance of early childhood education.

The Foundation strongly believes in the power of education to create change and prosperity not only for the lives of its recipients but also for the community as a whole. It also seeks to invest in the country’s future leaders by providing quality education and scholarships for thousands of outstanding Egyptian students to pursue a master's degree programs at prestigious universities in Egypt and abroad. To date, the SFSD has awarded 1,600 scholarships in a variety of fields. 

Moreover, the Foundation launched its LINKAGE initiative in 2021, with the aim of equipping public school graduates with the skill sets and knowledge to  be in a position to apply to scholarship opportunities in leading universities in Egypt and abroad.

The SFSD also launched a first-of-its-kind executive education in programme in partnership with the University of Chicago in 2019. This gives 150 senior executives from the public and private sectors the unique opportunity to learn from industry experts and thought leaders, expand their networks and develop their skills in a way that allows them to address current global challenges. In 2023, the second edition of the programme ran over the course of 15 days at El Gouna, with the participation of 50 public and private sectors executives and leaders . 

Underpinning all of the SFSD programmes, is an aspiration to positively uplift all levels of Egyptian society and central to this is investment in rigorous monitoring and evaluation systems, an evidence-based strategy and cross-organisational learning.

Through the establishment of its newly created Learning and Strategy department, the Foundation is committed to learning from findings and insights generated from their programme assessments and transparentlysharing lessons learned with the hope of contributing valuable knowledge to the wider development community.

In economic empowerment, the SFSD has upskilled more than 25,000 people from the most disadvantaged groups, allowing them to grow their incomes sustainably. The Foundation's social empowerment sector - encompassing 27 projects across basic services, health, and women empowerment - have reached over 100,000 beneficiaries.

In 2023, the Sawiris Cultural Award will celebrate its 18 edition, having established itself at the heart of celebrating and enriching Egypt's cultural achievements. Awards have been handed out to over 200 emerging and established Egyptian writers and novelists, with prize values increasing and categories expanding over the years.

What's more, the Foundation has shown itself capable of reacting to new challenges. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it concentrated on supporting the most vulnerable groups through allocating EGP 109 million to support the interventions directed at alleviating the severity of the pandemic on the Egyptian people 

In partnership with the UN Refugee Agency, SFSD supported 2,673 highly-vulnerable refugee households. The Foundation also worked with Orascom Construction arranged for the repair of 110 ventilators in public hospitals across Egypt and dispatched support convoys and relief initiatives to families in the most remote areas.

When Onsi Sawiris passed away aged 90 in El Gouna in 2021, he would have known that his business empire was in the safe hands of his sons. As too, will be the philanthropic legacy that Yousriya one day leaves behind. 

In 2022, Naguib Sawiris credited Onsi and Yousriya as the inspiration behind his establishment of the Manara school in El Gouna. “I am proud to announce the establishment of Manara School, a dream that I had for years, and was inspired by the philanthropic legacy of my parents," he says.

And explains: "I decided to not only continue investing in education, but to present an innovative opportunity for a specific purpose: giving talented, high-potential teenagers an unprecedented opportunity to make a difference in society by developing independence and cultivating leadership abilities that are only possible in an ideal educational environment both inside and outside of classrooms, in a world class school”

With Samih’s daughter, Taya, now also on the Foundation’s board, it seems Yousriya the grandmother remains influential as Yousriya the mother, MP, businesswoman, academic, and philanthropist.

Samih sees first-hand the ways in which his mother continues to inspire a new generation. “They see what a successful woman she is and how much she's doing and how acknowledged she is for all that she's doing. So it's good to have a figure to aspire to be like. She's an inspiration for them,” he says.