Several people work in the centre. They take care of and give training to the children, clean the building and work on the land etc.
The daily management is done by Youssef Fawzy & Caroline Kleinjan.
Caroline Kleinjan (up to 1999)
Caroline was born in 1968 in The Netherlands. After secondary school she studied for nurses specialising in people with severe learning difficulties.
After she passed her diploma, she left in May 1989 to go to the Middle East.
After her return to the Netherlands she started a job with children with special needs and started the part-time education for HBOV (higher education for nurses) in Leiden. In April 1996 she was awarded her diploma, and booked an orientation journey to Egypt.
In September 1997 Caroline went for a period of three years to Egypt. She helped to set up a Vocational Training Project at the St Marc Centre for young people with special needs. (This was also an activity day centre for people with learning difficulties). In this project they searched for workplaces where the people of the centre could learn to work. This was the reason that in the beginning of 1999 young people of the St. Marc Centre helped with packing of export articles for the brothers, George and Youssef.
Youssef Fawzy (up to 1999)
Youssef was born in Cairo in October 1972. After primary and secondary school, he attended a training school for mechanics. After he finished at the school he had to go into military service for 2 years. After a period of training, he worked as security in the presidential airport in the city and in his free time he worked as a helper of a silversmith. In this way he learned the trade of silversmith and later he and his brother went into the silversmith business together. They worked very hard, and the business went well. Youssef started to take English conversation lessons. He met a Dutch man who exported pottery. Sometimes he helped the man and, in this way, became more and more involved in the export of the pottery.
At a certain point this Dutch man received a request from the St Marc Centre asking if they had packing work for that people with learning difficulties could do under the program of the Vocational Training project. The Dutch man liked the idea and agreed to it. In the beginning of 1999, Caroline and one of her colleagues came with some of the new workers to help pack the iron fittings belonging to the pots that were to be exported.
Caroline & Youssef (from 1999)
So Caroline met Youssef and at this point something else started too..
In October 1999 they were engaged, and a year later they married. The original three years that Caroline committed to Egypt changed into a lifelong commitment.
During this time the Dutch man who exported pottery established the pottery business in El-Fayoum. In this oasis they baked and exported the pots. At the same time Youssef worked hard in this place and their vision grew to build a centre for children with learning difficulties in the oasis. Youssef also still worked in his own business as silversmith. Because he had good labourers who worked well in his silver workplace, he could combine his work as silversmith and his work at El-Fayoum. So they started building a house, although it took a lot of time and effort to get permission to install electricity and water etc.. But their efforts were rewarded and they were very pleased that it went so well.
In June 2004 they bought a small farm and renovated it as the centre. In November 2004 the centre first opened for children with learning difficulties.
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