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Equipping a Textile Recycling Centre on the Garbage Mountains of Cairo
In the centre of Cairo, at the foot of Mokattam, live the garbage collectors of this enormous metropolis. Referred to as "zabbaleen", these people survive on rubbish and have become "a cast" of their own, often excluded from the rest of society. The "Association for the Protection of the Environment" (APE) is working to improve their living conditions, and, perhaps even more significant, restitute some of their human dignity, by making a real business out of their work, and by recalling that recycling is today an important industry and that development and environmental preservation are not incompatible. One of their initiatives has been the construction of a centre for workshops on patchwork and recycled paper. Starting by collecting rags from the textile mills, the centre today teaches more than 250 young women how to sort, cut, sew, weave, iron and recycle these fabrics into patchwork quilts, bedspreads, rugs and other marketable items. In addition, the project demonstrates for the girls the importance of reading and writing skills. Literacy classes, health education, training in credit and business skills, leadership skills are offered on the premises. Funding is sought for equipment such as sewing machines, irons, cutting boards, needles, thread, in order to allow a larger number of girls participate and to raise the quality of the products produced.
- Since 1984, the Association for the Protection of the Environment (APE) has been working with the zabbaleen in improving living conditions and bringing about change. The result is a series of impressive results, where literacy, numeracy and health are mixed in with practical skills and programmes: rag and paper recycling units, neighbourhood upgrading schemes, an organic compost plant, a children's club, a nursery and much more.
- The textile centre today teaches more than 250 women
- APE is using the positive experience in Mokattam to develop similar projects in Tora and in Sinai.
- Today about 20,000 people live in Mokattam (the settlement having grown from a population of 8,000 in the early 1980s) and almost all of them live off, or are involved in, garbage activities
- It is estimated that about 30 per cent of Cairo's garbage is not collected formally and that the zabbaleen, the informal sector, currently handle one-third of the garbage of 14 million people at no cost to the city authorities. Specifically this means that the zabbaleen collect up to 3,000 tons of garbage every day and up to 85 per cent of that waste is recycled by them directly.
- On an educational level, most zabbaleen children have not had any access to formal schooling. Schools, until relatively recently, were not a feature of the garbage settlements and children generally work from an early age with their parents, either sorting waste in the home or accompanying the men on the collection routes. In 1997, it was estimated that of the youngsters, aged 12 to 14, 66 per cent of boys and 59 per cent of girls were working.
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