I'm a student who would, (surprise surprise) much rather not be.
I'm a student who would, (surprise surprise) much rather not be.
Member since:21.07.2002
Reviews:5
Members who trust:1
Once again I went travelling in 2001 as part of a charity group. This meant that I was able to see a little more than the average tourist does of the real Cairo and that area. Although I feel sure we only scratched the surface of life out there this is what I experienced.
Attached to Cairo are three 'villages' Mottamdia, Macattum and Helwan. A mixture of badly built brick homes and corrigated iron huts, these places are the homes of the rubbish collectors of Cairo.
The majority of the polutaion of these places is coptic. This is a type of orthodox Christian and becuase of their religion these people did not used to be able to work. So they became pig breeders collected the rubbish from the city to feed to their pigs. As things like metals and plastic became part of the rubbish the trade of these people changed. Now they sort the rubbish ready for the recyclers to take away.
Some of the homes in these villages, if the people have been able to afford bricks, consist of two floors. The downstairs is an open space where the rubbish is put and sorted, the upstairs is where they live. Fortunately two of the villages have been around for over 30 yrs and people are beginning to improve their living conditions. Some extended families will build a house for them to share and they will sort their rubbish at another location away from their home. However their lives are stil very basic rarely having electricity or running water. And unless you have been to a similar slum I doubt you can imagine the appaling smell of all this rubbish in the midday Egyptian sun.
The men spend their days picking their way through piles of rubbish gathering the diferent types of metal and plastic and sorting them. Then the women will come and sort the rotting vegetables for the pigs to eat form the paper which can be recycled. As you can imagine this is an awful task. The children will help out from the age of about 5.
The group that I travel with tries to help these people. We take money and have helped in the building of medical clinics aswell and providing much needed man power and materials for the only school which is in the church.
We also take some of the children away for a few days. This may seem one of the lesser needs but these children have worked in polluted conditions all their lives. We take them to the sea and let them enjoy thier childhoods for 5 days. This adds approx 2 years to their lives. Many of these children come from large families and are badly treated. We try to make them feel special, aswell as teaching them very simple things about how to relate to eachother as they often have very bad social problems.
Many huge, well known charities have come and thrown money at these people, had their photos taken and left. One of the things that many of those who live in these places have said to us is that we are still there. Teams visit every year while other cotacts live in Cairo and devote their lives to living, working and helping these people. They know that their lives are below the avarage standard and they are prepared to work hard to better themselves if they are given the opportunity and support that the charity I go with has been able to give.
It is to help build relationships and take the kids on one of the holidays that I am returning to Cairo in August 2002. Just knowing someone cares builds up these childrens self confidence and belif that it is worth fighting for a better life.
Cairo is a fantastic place and cannot survive without tourisum. I recoment it to those who like more advertureous trips. It really is worth it leaving the tourist trail and discovering places like above where you see what Egypt is really like. If you get easily upset but poverty I advise you stay away or prepare yourself. But over all the acient city is well worth a look.
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Jul 24th, 2002
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