Rug weaving / Patchwork

Children Club

Mother & Child

Garbage Seperation Project

Transfer of Experience

A composting plant at A.P.E began with recycling organic pig manure into high grade compost which in turn was sold to reclaimers of desert lands and agriculturists. This project allowed the residents of the neighborhood to clean out their pig sites on a regular basis and not let such unhealthy waste pile up in their homes, thus reducing the health hazards to the household. The income earned from the sale of the compost was directed to a community-based health project, an income generating project (rag recycling for girls and women) and literacy classes as well as field trips and recreation.

A composting plant at A.P.E began with recycling organic pig manure into high grade compost which in turn was sold to reclaimers of desert lands and agriculturists. This project allowed the residents of the neighborhood to clean out their pig sites on a regular basis and not let such unhealthy waste pile up in their homes, thus reducing the health hazards to the household. The income earned from the sale of the compost was directed to a community-based health project, an income generating project (rag recycling for girls and women) and literacy classes as well as field trips and recreation.

The regular disposal of animal waste from residents homes makes their dwelling cleaner places inside the home. In 1991, the number of homes cleaned out by A.P.E came up to 26. In 1993, 256 homes participated in that scheme. If the association were not to engage in this activity, residents of Mokkatam garbage settlement would either postpone cleaning out their animal pens until the environment became hazardous to human health, or enlist the services of a private contractor who charges exploitative rates for the service of cleaning out organic Manure and transporting it outside the settlement. The crude compost contains harmful bacteria to the land. A.P.E carries out farmer education outreach to information about the hazards of using crude organic waste.

The project was launched in 1988 with support of the composting project, which was then on its feet and viable. This project targeted drop out girls who had had to go out on the garbage route as children and who had thus been deprived of the chance to go to school. These mothers were recruited into what we call our 'learning and earning' school - a model of how to learn all the elements of school learning but in a recycling project revolving around the transformation of clean rags into marketable products. These rags are donated by the private textile sector of Egypt. The project incorporates literacy, personal and environmental hygiene and empowerment to deal with culture-specific matters such as female circumcision, early marriage, and others.

This projects runs with the vision that a women in a development project further involves the residents of Mokattam Garbage village. It receives annually , on average, 100 girls and young women. A 306 month training period introduces trainees to the art and skill of weaving rag rugs on a hand loom and sewing patch work items. Building in the existing skill of sorting garbage, this project creates an alternative educational model in non-formal education for girls and women who never had the chance to go tot school. It views the waste and sorting context of recycling as a potential for an income generating numeracy, while incorporating elements of personal and environmental hygiene. Business skills are developed and computer literacy is added.

Skill acquisition covers areas of color identification, classification, space relationships, numeracy, literacy, home economics, personal and environmental hygiene, and a host of other learning built on existing skills within the community's recycling ethos. The approach adopted in holistic and includes recreation and celebration, through field trips and monthly celebrations. These feature health and soci-dramas, primary health care training in nutrition, mother and child health, family planning, traditional negative practices, prevention measures against accidents, etc. as well as discussion revolving around major production and project management concerns.

Literacy classes are offered on the premises of APE and are scheduled to suit the staggered training schedule of trainees. Based on Freiran methods of literacy instruction, the curriculum is designed around slightly different principles of conscientization based upon sources of hope rather than root causes of oppression.

Graduation parties inaugurate the productive families' phase of the project where trainees go on to producing from their homes. They continue to secure their rags and work orders from A.P.E, which markets the products both locally and internationally. A 1994 census of participants in this project indicated the a total of 300 girls and women had graduated from the center of whom a full 200 continue to be cottage industry workers. Of these 64% practice family planning and 56% are opposed to female circumcision.

A children's club, launched in 1993, is designed to provide pre-school children with a chance to acquire pre-school skills and escape from the horror of the environment of garbage on the street, at least for a few hours of each day. Field trips, celebrations and nutrition are an important aspect of this activity. The club receives 4-6 years olds prepares them for school. Literacy classes are offered to school drop-outs and a paper recycling project provides one more option as further income generating activity for girls and women.

This program revolves around upgrading midwives skills and immunization of pregnant women against tetanus. A health referral scheme refers residents to specific health care delivery institutions outside the settlement after t local resources in the community have been exhausted,. A maternity center receives infants and toddlers of working mothers and was launched by the main donor from the private sector on march 21 1996 , mother's day in Egypt.

A paper recycling project, tested from 1992-1993 was formally launched in 1994 with its own physical space, project officers, budget, etc. It too targets girls at the age of puberty and above and incorporates the same elements as the rag recycling project.

This project was tested in two urban neighborhoods in Cairo. Findings indicated that the scheme would afford replication and would lead to a more efficient recovery of solid waste from household garbage, as well as produce a better composts free from contaminants and heavy metals. Women would no longer have to sort soiled garbage and the health hazards to children would be greatly reduces.

A.P.E's plans for the future are to expand a garbage separation at the source pilot project in the entire city of Cairo. This project would require residents of Cairo to toss out their household garbage into two components: food and non-food. This initial separation would make the manual sorting of household waste less hazardous to the health of women and children and reduce the sorting time by half. It would also produce cleaner organic manure and even higher grade compost. The non-food items would be recovered and sold to recycling entrepreneurs in the neighborhood and fetch a sustainable income. The environment would be further served from this recovery and re-manufacture of solid household waste which would become more efficient if residents sorted it into these two components.

Project is to use experiene and knowledge gained in the Mokattam village in other garbage villages. The village selected is TORA village. The project is a concerted effort , on behalf of a marginalized group of people playing a vital role in the management of the urban environment of a section of the huge megalopolis, Cairo - household solid waste collection, disposal and recovery to accomplsih the following : To inform, educate and convince official government policy and practice to reverse their decision to evict and move the people; To support and implement a neighborhood upgrading plan involving the ;

• planning of streets,
• construction of a school,
• outpatient clinic,
• park,
• children’s club,
• credit programs to upgrade the garbage collection vehicles from donkey-pulled carts to small pick-up trucks,
• credit for small and micro-enterprise development, l
• iteracy classes,
• infrastructure (water, sewage and power lines),
• improving construction by painting facades of building,
• planting trees,
• community mobilization and participation.

 

[Overview] [Activities] [Products] [Prizes & Awards] [Home] [Contact]