By Nayera Yasser
Living amongst rubbish is not unusual for 3.5 million citizens in Egypt, according to a new initiative set up in Egypt. For those citizens, rubbish is their main source of food. In Egypt, many children are raised everyday thinking that searching through rubbish for food is a standard act across the world.
While this category of citizens cannot afford an average meal, the rest of the population casually throws its food away, with no regard to any recycling system, absolutely unaware of how it reaches the hungry.
“Kamel Karamak” (“Complete your good deed”), is a national initiative created by Lipton Tea, Knorr Fine Foods and the Food Bank, in collaboration with the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade, to raise awareness regarding food disposal.
According to the initiative’s first TV ad, the average citizen throws away 30% of their food. The ad’s main message is delivered in straight forward fashion, as it starts with footage of people purchasing and cooking food in much larger quantities than what they can eat, only to dispose of it at the end.
“Kamel Karamak” not only aims at making people aware of the importance of minimisation – it also plans to create a food donation campaign that can cater to the unfortunate 3.5 million people suffering from incapacity to find basic foodstuffs.
The Food Bank is a local NGO that fights starvation in Egypt through its donations and awareness campaigns. Despite being active year-round, the NGO’s activities usually gain much more attention during the holy month of Ramadan.
