Don’t bin it, rehabilitate it
CAIRO: At a workshop on Sunday a group of young people from three poor Cairo districts – Bolaq El Dakroor, Manshiet Nasser and Al-Darb El-Ahmar – took their first steps into the world of recycling and the economic opportunities it could offer.”The workshop is about finding ways and developing job opportunities for young people in recycling, which generates lots of work, environmental engineer Adrian Coad told The Daily Star Egypt.
Specialized in solid waste management for low-and middle-income countries, Coad headed the workshop that took place at the head quarters of Al-Darb El-Ahmar Community Development Company at Al Azhar Park.
The building itself was a school hit by the1992 earthquake. Project manager Aly Abdel Aal explains that they used that space to entrench the idea that rehabilitating old things is better than just getting rid of them.
Representatives of the three communities had to come up with a three-month plan at the end of the workshop for how to collect information and figure out ways to amass the waste before even beginning recycling.
In previous workshops Al-Darb El-Ahmar women were taught women how to create soap out of left over oil, instead of throwing it down the toilet which damages the plumbing.
Rihab Abdulla, head of the environmental projects for Al-Darb El-Ahmar Community Development Company says they are successfully working on turning the rooftops of the buildings in the area into agricultural spots, where each family can grow their own crops.
Al-Darb El-Ahmar is an old Cairo quarter that occupies about a fifth of the medieval area of the city. Situated between Al-Azhar University and the Citadel it is a fascinating area that reflects rich Egyptian heritage with its monuments of Islamic architecture although it is now very poor and many of the buildings are seriously damaged from low maintenance and collapsing.
In 2004 El Azhar Park, a big garbage site that was transformed into the most beautiful park in Cairo by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture Initiative, opened to the public turning
Once they started building the park they realized that the buildings of Al-Darb El-Ahmar district surrounding it were run down. But instead of tearing them down, the Aga Khan decided set the area as an example of social and economic development.
Together with local NGOs, municipal institutions, businessmen, neighboring representatives as well as the people that live and work in the district, the trust turned the area around. They focused on housing rehabilitation, sanitation, garbage removal, health care and the creation of a community center.
Grants from the Ford Foundation, Egyptian-Swiss development fund, World Monuments and the Aga Khan Trust added up to LE 25 million by 2004. The second part of the project, lasting till 2008, is funded by the Social Funds for Development, the Ford Foundation, Canadian International Development Agency and the Aga Khan Trust.
Al-Darb El-Ahmar Community Development Company was the main organizer of this workshop. It was also supported by the Goethe Institute in Cairo, the GTZ (an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations) and G&W Science and Engineering Company in Cairo.
