After having worked with the boys of the Recycling School for the last few weeks, we finally got out into the community to learn about an opportunity offered to the women of Garbage City. We were given a tour of the Association for the Protection of Environment, a facility used to train women in a skill and provide them an education. The association taught two skills: cloth weaving and papermaking. Like the recycling school, the women are paid to come and create their profit from recycling waste.
The material used in weaving is all paid for and gathered from shops that have extra scraps for whatever reason. The women then separate these scraps into the different colors. They are taught to make rugs first and then go on to make bags, quilts and scarves. For papermaking, they use paper donated from all over Cairo, which they recycle to make a plethora of wonderful products. This process, seen in the video, is them wetting down the used paper, collecting it in rectangular frames and drying it out on wooden slabs. All of the products created here are sold in shops all over Egypt and a show room at the association.
While learning these skills is important, the woman in charge of the tour told us the school was originally founded focused around literacy. However, in order to get the women to come to the school instead of working to earn a wage, they incorporated the practical work aspect to motivate the women to come and commit to their education. It was great to see such innovative ways to empower women through work that is environmentally conscious.
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