Sayed Ahmed Khailfa - Script (pdf 81Kb) - Board of Mission Overseas

Script for Sayed Ahmed Khailfa’s story
4 minutes
1. Let Justice Flow is a three year campaign of Presbyterian World
Development, supporting Tearfund and Christian Aid projects that
give people hope for the future by equipping them to find justice
today.
2. The focus this year is on Egypt where, as in so many other countries,
the gap between rich and poor is growing steadily and where in the
last two years the political landscape has changed dramatically.
3. Sayed Ahmed Khailfa has farmed the land at Zawyet El Nawya,
about 100 km upstream of Cairo on the banks of the Nile, for over
50 years.
4. Through farming he has been able to support his wife and seven
children but now he is playing a much bigger part in community life
using his experience and the skills he has learnt working with local
Egyptian Christian development agency CEOSS for the benefit of all.
5. Like any farmer Sayed knows what things cost and he’s delighted
that with the help of CEOSS not only have costs been reduced
substantially but yield has been increased with the added bonus of
the crops being of better quality.
6. “Years ago it was hard to make ends meet,” says Sayed who
explained that for many years his income was just enough to pay for
the necessities of life adding that he and his family could only afford
to eat meat once every two weeks.

7. Some years after joining the local group of farmers formed by
CEOSS Sayed stood for election to the local committee and some
time later he became the local chairman.
8. My programme was to secure irrigation water for all of the local
farmers and bring about changes that would reduce the cost of
tilling and leveling the soil to half of the existing cost,” explains
Sayed.
9. To achieve such a programme involved not only getting local
farmers to speak with one voice but meeting with government
officials and negotiating with Egypt’s deputy minister of agriculture,
the irrigation supervisor for the area and the local head of land
improvement.
10. To help them CEOSS provided negotiation skills workshops,
communications and networking sessions and facilitated preparation
meetings that gave Sayed and his farming colleagues the confidence
to argue their case successfully.
11. After many meetings the government agreed to reopen and
maintain two irrigation channels that would provide fresh water
straight from the Nile to the farmer’s fields in Zawyet El Nawya.
12. In another agreement an arrangement was reached that if the
farmers joined together as a group and hired tillers and other
machinery directly from the government they would receive a
substantial discount as well as getting better quality equipment.
13. And alongside all the negotiating and lobbying skills CEOSS has also
helped with the more traditional development methods by providing
better seed, introducing new farming techniques and reducing the

use of artificial fertilizer by helping the farmers make their own
compost.
14. Sayed and his farming colleagues appreciate the help that they have
been given to grow more crops at less cost to them and realise the
long term benefits of the advocacy and negotiating skills they have
learnt to ask for the help they need.
15. “With CEOSS’s help we have brought local farmers together to learn
from one another,’ says Sayed. “More importantly we have found
the confidence to stand up for the community and gain the respect
of those we are here to serve.”
16. By setting up local development groups, and then training them to
take their own initiatives people in Egypt are being helped to tackle
the roots of poverty in their own communities.
17. Presbyterian World Development, with your support for ‘Let Justice
Flow’ is enabling Christian Aid and Tearfund to help groups like
CEOSS in taking practical action in creating a more just and hope
filled society through people having the skills and confidence to
speak up and speak out.