Laptops for Zabaleen Youth Families in the Zabaleen community, Cairo’s garbage collector group, survive by collecting, sorting and recycling up to 90 percent of Cairo’s trash by hand. As children actively participate in this vocation, most of them drop out of school in order to work full time. This virtually guarantees that they will remain in […]
CONTINUE READINGDuring a recent visit of HANDS’ Board of Directors to Cairo’s garbage collectors’ community, a man dressed in the traditional long robes of Egypt came to explain how HANDS had changed his life. Eissa used to collect garbage with only his two sons and a small truck–the typical unlicensed work of Cairo’s Zabbaleen. As members […]
CONTINUE READINGEvery day, Hannan conscientiously bends over her loom, weaving colorful rugs and tote bags from the pile of cloth scraps at her side. As she finishes a piece, she trudges four blocks through the dusty streets of the urban squatter settlement where she lives to sell it to one of HANDS’ local partner organizations in […]
CONTINUE READINGFaris is a 44-year-old Egyptian who lives in the outskirts of Cairo in a community of garbage collectors known as Zabaleen. For many years, Faris and his sons, like many other Zabaleen families, navigated the streets of Cairo, collecting garbage from apartment buildings on their assigned route. After the refuse was loaded in their donkey cart […]
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