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HOPE FOR THE GARBAGE PICKERS OF MOKATTAM

Catherine White

During my time in Heliopolis, Dr Wahid, an Egyptian medical doctor took a visitor from Ireland and myself to visit St Simon's centre at Mokattam.  Mokattam is the area where the garbage pickers sort their garbage and also live.  He arrived in a battered little car – so smashed in and dirty looking!  While he was greeting us the workers at St Clare’s gathered the collection of recycled cardboard, paper, plastic, and glass that the students and staff collect.  They filled the car with as much as possible and then strapped a huge pile to the roof.  When we arrived to go with him they had to empty out enough to make space for us to be able to sit somewhere.  

The centre was only about fifteen minutes drive from here situated near to the old Citadel and beneath Mokattam, the mountain St Simon is believed to have lifted by prayer. We were on the main road and then turned off onto a smaller road which was initially quite attractive, but as soon as the road turned the first corner the scene changed dramatically.  It is hard really to describe it adequately.

The narrow streets were just literally full of rubbish of every kind – plastic bottles, paper, cardboard, food scraps and glass.  Most of it was separated out into its various components.  There were lots of donkeys there since it is the donkey carts that travel throughout Cairo collecting rubbish for recycling.  

The smell was indescribable, but for the most part the children and adults who were working in the garbage or sitting outside their houses seemed neat, clean and very happy.  Some children ran behind the car and pushed us when we had to stop for another vehicle or animal.

Every space is filled with garbage for sorting

St Simon's was a nice building which houses what Wahid calls the "zero" project.  He collects the "zeros" – things that have no value for others – things like empty bottles, paper, plastic bags and cans.  They even collect old fluro tubes which Toshiba buy back again to reuse the metal caps at the end of the tube!  Workers sort and sell what can be sold. The rate of  recycling is very high here.

With the money made selling the recyclables, Dr Wahid pays his two rubbish workers a fair wage.  He has also bought a number of sewing machines and over-lockers, and has a group of about ten women who make sheets and pillowcases as well as clothes for resale.  He buys material remnants from which they make shirts and children's clothes.  Any profit is used to pay these workers and to set up and employ more workers as the money allows.  He is dreaming of being able to have two shifts of workers so that the machines and buildings can be used for longer than the one shift that is presently operating.

There is a clothing recycling section which employs another few women.  This section takes the old clothes and sorts, cleans, mends, and sells what can be sold.  The local people come and buy clothes for a minimal sum.  Again the profit is used to pay the workers. There is a small kindergarten which is under renovation at present.  The children of the workers and local children come and attend the kindergarten free of charge. It gives them a chance to prepare for school.

Next to the centre is a piggery. Viewed from the window are pigs wallowing in excreta and mud.  The owner sells pig-poo for fertilizer and the pigs for pork.      Dr Wahid hopes to be able to raise enough money to buy the piggery and use the land for a church as the thousands of mostly Christian inhabitants of the area don't have a church.  If the piggery moved the centre could open the windows.  At present they keep them closed to keep out the worst of the smell and flies.

Along the opposite side is a long thin area between the building and the fence.  Dr Wahid is collecting funds to turn this into a kind of canteen where local people could come to buy tea, coffee and food at a reasonable cost.  Again the profit would employ some more people.                                                                                                                          

While we were there a young man came in offering his services.  He had gone to secondary school for a few years and is good at computers.  The centre collects old computers and so the young man will test these, keep what works for the children to use and sell the others for parts.  When he makes a profit he will receive a wage.                 Plastic bottles for recycling                        He also hopes to set up a basketball court and billiard table which locals can pay to use – more employment!                        

One unforgettable moment was when I was standing in a huge room full of rubbish.  It was dirty and full of flies.  The rubbish was separated into piles.  On the top of a pile of books was an old Australian Collins atlas.  I picked it up to look at it suspecting that it came from St Clare's.  Dr Wahid straight away said in his broken English "You have need of this?  Take it and use it!"

Dr Wahid is a medical doctor.  He did his training in Egypt and studied for his Ph.D in Paris.  So he speaks French as his first language, and then Arabic.  His English is pretty good for a third language!  He works at the centre all day and then conducts at a small private clinic to support his family.  A woman who is an engineer works as a volunteer a couple of days a week.  She is there while he goes out to pick up the rubbish in his little car.  She does the books and runs the centre in his absence. 

The whole project is remarkable.  Such a story and experience of hope found in the midst of such terrible poverty and unbelievable living conditions!  From the "zeros" comes a living for about seventeen people, services for the local people, and the possibility of growth into the future.