Recycled Rags Renewed Lives

Abstract

This booklet should be of interest to educatorsand peopleseeking to understand the mechanisms of exclusionand the forging of newpaths towards community empowerment and basiceducation skills. Manyinhabitants of Cairo, Egypt, dependon the zabbaleen/garbage collectors butknow very little of these people who make theirway up and down the city'scrowded streets every day pickingup and recovering refuse. If they lookedinto the zabbaleen's history and that of thegarbage neighborhood ofMokattam, they would discover a busy world whereinventiveness and the needto survive have given birth to newways of looking at the environment, basiceducation, and development. Since 1984, theAssociation for the Protection ofthe Environment (A.P.E.) has been working withthe zabbaleen in improvingliving conditions and bringing about change.The result is a series ofimpressive programs where literacy,numeracy and health are combined withpractical skills, rag and paper recycling units,neighborhood upgradingschemes, an organic compost plant,a children's club, a nursery and muchmore. Today, the zabbaleen, in collaboration with A.P.E.,are taking theirskills and programs beyond their neighborhood.of Mokattum to other garbagevillages around Cairo, to South Sinai and abroad.This spread of expertiseshows how waste management can becomean entry point for the empowerment ofthe excluded.(LB)