Unbelievable Place

It’s a place beyond anyone’s imagination and a place that no one of us can live in; it’s the “Zabaleen” area near “Mookatm” in Cairo. The place is very interesting and exciting to visit. People should go there to see how these people are living because without them we would have a massive problem in getting rid of our garbage.

Therefore, people and the government ought to thank and help them in developing their area. The place was originally formed by Egyptian Copts coming from Upper Egypt to work in Cairo, internal immigration, but finding jobs wasn’t so easy for them; therefore, they started to work as garbage collectors for whole of Cairo and they took this area as their base. The place there is very small, squatter, and full of smells and diseases. In addition to that, the roads are very narrow and small and if you walked through them you will find piles and piles of garbage on both sides.

More than ten tons are collected from Cairo daily.

Also, there are buildings that have apartments for the garbage collectors to live in. what is special about that place is that there is a recycling factory where paper and plastics are recycled and used once again. Families there have a certain process in the recycling operation. Some families have machines that recycle on their own others go to the recycling factory. First the family takes the garbage they collected and start to separate each thing alone, where all the family members are helping each other. For example, they put all steal or metal objects on one side, papers and plastics on another side in order not to be mixed together. After separating the garbage the collectors take the precious and useful things and send the rest of garbage to the recycling factory.

In the “Zabaleen” area there is an association called the “Association for the Protection of the Environment” (P.V.E). This association was built in 1988 in order to help and solve the problems of this society. Problems like education and health problems were there main concern to solve. The association established many campaigns in the area in order to aware people on how to live in a healthy and clean environment.

The association also developed center for collecting, separating and recycling garbage at “katameya” because the place in the “Zabaleen” area is not that much. Also, they built nursery schools for young children in order to make them have education because children there help their parents in separating garbage and don’t go to schools.

Kids don't go to school and help their parents in collecting garbage.

Not only was it concerned with the people but also the society itself by paving the roads, developing water and sewage systems. Thus, the association made a great contribution by developing the area but still more in need to be done. Inside the “Zabaleen” area there is monastery called the “Sam’an monastery”. It’s all made of natural caves that are magnificent and full of tourists. Copts consider it a very holy and sacred place and going there is like pilgrim for Muslims. However, in my opinion, this area ought to be developed and supported by the government because if these people are neglected they will definitely die and we will live in places that are full of garbage’s and diseases. More recycling factories need to be established since the consumption of garbage is increasing that can be used in generating energy and electricity. Therefore, it’s crucial to focus on such an area and try to improve and develop it.

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