Egyptian Businessman Brings Church Beyond its Walls to Impact Education and the Economy

When Samer El Daief, a businessman in Egypt, first heard about the Church’s role in the community during The Global Leadership Summit, he was challenged with what this idea meant to him and his role as a businessman.

Samer realized something significant at the Summit—the Church is meant to go beyond its walls and transform the community. “The Summit helped me realize the Church can easily go out and reconcile with the community,” said Samer. “In Egypt we live inside our Christian walls as a minority, and it was the first time I saw walls break down and I had the feeling we can communicate with people outside the Church.”

As a businessman, this was a freeing idea for him and his faith in the workplace.

“My life is not only within my local church, but also the Church in Egypt, as well as in my business and my family,” Samer explains. “After the Summit, I realized we can have a bigger role in the community. I started to talk to the people in the government. God gave me grace to meet with the ministry of investment, the ministry of education and we talked about how we can help, both through my business and through my church.”

Samer is now involved in two projects, one with the ministry of education, and one to help small business entrepreneurs as they start their businesses. Both of these projects are close to Samer’s heart, and address the biggest needs in his community.

Better Education

“Part of our problem in Egypt is education,” says Samer. “Of course we have some economic problems as well, but I think education and leadership are the keys.

“I dream of bringing something good to education in Egypt both for the church, and for the community so we can see transformation in my country.”

“In Egypt the government schools are very poor,” says Samer. “They don’t even have PE classes. The kids don’t play. They might have playground, but don’t have teachers. So in partnership with a company called Wellspring, that specializes in campaigns like this, we proposed to do a big project in hopes of reaching half million students from the government schools in the poor areas. We will teach them ethics, integrity, accepting others and honesty through theme games. We will start this project in the new school year.

Better Business

“My second project is helping small business entrepreneurs start their business,” says Samer. “I established a new company to help entrepreneurs who are struggling in different areas or entrepreneurs who want to start a new business. This was inspired by the Summit!”

Thank you for supporting the dreams of leaders like Samer!

I want to thank you very much for your donation and support for the GLS in Egypt. Last year we had a great Summit. For the first time, 150 people attended from outside the church. We had both Muslims and Christians there together. This was historical in our city. Newspapers wrote about it, and national television came to cover the Summit as well. We believe that next year, because of your support, we can have even more impact in our community. Thank you so much.—Samer El Daief, GLS leader, Egypt

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