“I love it when we celebrate each other’s birthdays. In my department, we collect money and buy a cake or presents. On the farm, they make a monthly party for those who were born in the same month!” This is one of multiple traditions that Amany Elsayed loves about SEKEMs working culture. The manager has been diligently working in SEKEM for 16 years now. First, she worked at the medical company Atos, now she is a Quality Assurance Supervisor at the food producer iSiS Organic.
Destiny in SEKEM
Amany was born in Belbis and graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture, majoring in Food Industry. Two years after graduation, she joined SEKEM.
Fate brought Amany and her husband, Sameh, together at SEKEM, that is what the Egyptina lady is convinced of. They met each other while he working in one of the teams Amany was supervising. By now, they have been happily married for eight years and are looking forward to many more happy years to come. They have two children: their daughter Sama is seven years old and their son Seif is five years old. Both of them attended the SEKEM nursery and Sama goes to the SEKEM school now.
The loving mother expresses her happiness about the fact that her children are attending SEKEM school saying: “It is so different from other schools because they don’t push children to hold pens, start writing and memorizing from an early age on. They teach them how to draw, how to think and develop their skills. For example, Sama can already knit at this young age. In addition, after school, she waits for me until I finish work and she learns how to make handicrafts like pencil-cases and fans and she even makes bracelets for me.” Amany’s son, Seif, also learns drawing, coloring, and clay shaping at the SEKEM Nursery. “I really like this and it is better than other systems. I don’t want to pressure him so that he doesn’t hate studying in the future. When they join school later on, they are taught everything from scratch; holding a pen and writing. If a kid has a specific problem, they give special attention to him,” expresses Amany with enthusiasm and gratitude.
SEKEM is more than a workplace
The keen employee learned a lot of things from SEKEM. Working pushed her to meet new people and become more extroverted. She learned to be patient and how to deal with different types of people according to their personalities. “There is no difference between workers here and I haven’t had misunderstandings with anyone. We all share love, affection and social relationships and we celebrate occasions together and help each other during hard times.” Amany also took an ICDL course (International Computer Driving License) to elevate her computer skills. And she likes the weekly meetings especially when they contain exciting performances such as plays and choir concerts.
In the future, Amany wants to try and learn something new; explore new places and positions whether inside the company or outside. In addition, she wishes that her dear children will have a prosperous future.
Nour Eltobgy