Here is an abridged version of the proposal we submitted to the Kathryn Davis grant committee explaining our project:
The Recycling School: Environmental and Social Progress
Introduction
Families known as the zabbaleen have collected Cairo’s rubbish for generations in the desert cliffs west of Cairo, a region known as Mokattam. The zabbaleen are dependent on income generated from recycling rubbish. The expansion of Cairo over the last twenty years has sandwiched this settlement between new and old Cairo. The city’s rapidly growing population is producing an ever-increasing mountain of waste. The traditional system of rubbish collection is unfit to meet this rising demand, gravely threatening both the system and the zabbaleen people.
Problem
The zabbaleen children begin working at young ages, either collecting or sorting rubbish. Like many children in Egypt and other less industrialized countries, they miss out on the opportunity for a formal education, perpetuating social and economic stagnation. The zabbaleen need an educational system that incorporates basic technical and literacy skills, industrial safety and personal hygiene. So, too, they need relevant work experience and creative outlets through the arts and recreation. The major program functioning to provide for these needs in Cairo, the Plastic Recycling School, faces deficient facilities and insufficient teaching materials, rendering it incapable of providing for its students. This leaves the zabbaleen without an income, condemning them to an unending cycle of poverty.
Furthermore, the Greater Cairo Metropolitan Region currently has one of the densest populations in the world and is expected reach 14 million by 2015. This population boom has resulted in rampant environmental degradation; the city produces 13,000 tons of trash every day. Seeking to profit from this growth, multinational waste disposal companies have contracted in Cairo, dumping waste in desert landfills instead of recycling. Foreign companies in Cairo recycle only 20% of their collected waste, whereas the zabbaleen sorted through the waste and recycled 80%. The zabbaleen are left unable to compete with the foreign contractors, thus eradicating these Mokattam citizens’ income and propagating environmentally unsustainable practices.
Project Description
To address the current problems aforementioned, we plan to enhance the Plastic Recycling School’s programs by providing essential learning supplies and facility necessities. Under the auspices of the Spirit of Youth Association for Environmental Services, the Plastic Recycling School targets the children of rubbish collectors in the Mokattam neighbourhood who lack access to formal education. Ninety children now benefit from the program, which facilitates their integration into the new waste management business and provides foundational education. The School operates on the premise that globalization has put the traditional, low-tech Mokattam rubbish collectors in direct competition with affluent multinational waste management services.
We have contacted the Recycling School to identify items that would ensure future educational success of students. Based on this, we will purchase the following:
Computers that will provide unprecedented teaching tools such as presentations, digital learning materials, and interactive computer programs for the kids. They will also supply access to technologies required to compete successfully in a global business world increasingly reliant on word processing programs.
Data show projector to increase the effectiveness of instructional lectures and provide classroom-wide access to lecture materials and demonstrations.
Rectangular tables on which to place computers in a lab room, which will serve as a separate area for instruction and work.
Chairs for classrooms that will increase enrollment capabilities and allow additional events for mothers and sisters.
Round tables for instructional activities in literacy and arts and crafts.
Building-enhancing supplies to provide a suitable learning environment, including bathroom door and window, windows for what are currently open spaces in the wall, ceiling fans for ventilation.
Primer and paint for the brick walls to prevent erosion of the building.
A gate to the Recycling School premises to provide a safe learning environment.
These will all be purchased in Cairo to ensure their arrival and to support the local economy. In collaboration with Spirit of Youth workers, we will then provide all manual labor necessary to set up all supplies and carry out building improvements. We will also document the project through writing and photographs to increase awareness in Caldwell, Idaho.
Partnership
We will be partnering with the Spirit of Youth Association for Environmental Services. The Spirit of Youth Association is an Egyptian non-governmental organization founded in 2004 by a group of young women and men from the recycling community of Mokattam. The Sprit of Youth work directly with The Recycling School and will aid in the purchase of all necessary items, share in manual labor, facilitate our accommodations at the neighborhood church-hotel to avoid reliance on taxis for travel, and ensure the completion of all projects.
Project Outcomes
The project’s short-term benefit is to provide underprivileged adolescents the opportunity to receive an education while earning an income and improve their living environment, thereby empowering them to advocate for their own causes. Educating the children in the latest advances in recycling technology is necessary to ensure their ability to compete in the growing waste-disposal industry, thus alleviating the devastating effects of poverty and, ideally, closing the widening class divide. This security will afford educational opportunities for future generations of zabbaleen that are not feasible for the current generation, initiating the breakdown of the poverty cycle and raising the standard of living in Mokattam. Funding the supplies and renovations for the Recycling School will facilitate the education of a generation of conservationists ready to lead the city of Cairo in efficient waste disposal and recycling efforts, serving as a paradigm of environmental protection for the rest of the world.
Budget
The budget will cover supplies for the school and travel expenses to ensure the successful completion of the project. Labor will come from volunteering organized by our partner and ourselves. Additional fundraising will come from local sponsors and events that will go directly to the purchase of additional supplies for the Recycling School.
