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1970

1980

New beginnings

With the family reunited, Yousriya discovers a new purpose

A new economic climate in Egypt sees Onsi make a welcome return from Libya, reigniting his business aspirations on home soil. Meanwhile, an experience in Cairo's impoverished suburbs leaves a lasting impression on Yousriya, stirring within her a deep yearning to help. It is at this point, inspired by her faith and her education, that Yousriya takes the first steps on her philanthropic journey.

"The best investment in any country in the world is education."

Samih Sawiris

When Anwar Sadat succeeded Gamal Abdel Nasser as President of Egypt in 1970, he set about changing the country's economic direction. His Infitah (‘openness’) policy of 1974 reversed many of his predecessor's socialist reforms and sought to encourage private sector investment, both domestically and from overseas. 

Egypt’s new business landscape lured Onsi Sawiris back to his homeland. And after a dozen successful years in Libya, he returned in 1976 to his area of expertise and founded Orascom Construction Industries. Aligned with Egypt’s growing economy, his business prospered.

The Sawiris family became major players in the Egyptian economy and Orascom remains today one of the country's leading industrial conglomerates. Photos: Getty / Shutterstock.

Also flourishing at this time were his three sons. Onsi harboured hopes that his children would be able to follow him into his business, and he took every step to ensure they’d be in the strongest place to do so. They were enrolled in the best schools in Egypt before pursuing further education in America, Switzerland, and Germany.

The Sawiris brothers were grateful to receive the quality of education that they did. “We had a unique privilege thanks to this education,” Samih says. Samih also recalls his mother’s pioneering zeal for education playing an integral part in his and his brothers’ upbringing. 

“She saw how she upgraded herself, being left behind with the kids in school. [Even when] the husband was always busy working then even moving to Libya after nationalisation of his company, she said ‘I need to do something to make myself more important in life than just a housewife.’”

“So she went back to school, finished everything with university and her master's and started working and had her own office. This taught her the value of empowerment, and empowerment in other people's cases.”

Building a new future for Egypt

Orascom: from construction to renewables

Onsi Sawiris established what was then Onsi & Lamei Co in 1950, beginning with a focus on construction projects in Upper Egypt. In 1976, following Onsi's return from Libya, Orascom Construction was founded and soon became Egypt's first multinational corporation, operating cement plants in Egypt and neighbours Algeria, before expanding out to Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, and Spain.

Today Orascom is a global leader in engineering and construction, with more than 65,000 employees worldwide and operations spanning over 20 countries in the Middle East, Africa, and the USA. A commitment to sustainable growth is one of the company's four key pillars, and in 2019 it helped build the Ras Ghareb Wind Farm, the largest renewable energy project of its kind in Egypt (pictured below).

If Onsi Sawiris was keen for his sons to attain the best education possible in order to follow him into business, Yousriya’s motivation for doing so was more community-oriented. Evoking the "Enter Ye to Learn, Leave Ye to Serve" motto from her own schooling at Cairo's American College for Girls, as it was then called, she impressed upon her boys the importance of giving back, all while continuing in her own education.

“My mother fostered an unspoken belief that we were lucky and had received too much,” Samih explains. “We had a good education and an entrepreneurial father, which gave us a leg up in many ways. She always reminded us that what we have isn’t entirely ours, we owe it to society to give back. Egypt is a poor country where a lot of people need help, but people can’t depend solely on the state.”

Samih also remembers how the family's faith also played a role in its philanthropy. “My mother differentiated between charity and social work. She did charity, but she considered social work a duty that people who have been lucky in life and have more resources are obliged to give. One takes you to heaven, and one if you don't do it, takes you out of heaven. So we needed to do both; this is how she would phrase it. So for her, both were basically mandatory in our case.”

And on Mother’s Day in 1979, Yousriya chanced upon a cause that would soon become close to her and the family’s heart. When a dinner encounter introduced her to the plight of the Zabbaleen (“garbage people”) in the Mokattam suburb of Cairo, Yousriya insisted on paying the area known to locals as 'Garbage City' a visit. She was humbled by what she saw. 

"That was my beginning of being baptised into garbage,” she said. “Something had to be done. And ever since, I've been trying."