Children are taught to recycle by a charity in Egypt’s ‘Garbage City’
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Sulaiman
- . March 29, 2023
- . Update: March 29, 2023 4:43 pm
When Teresa Saeed was a little girl living in Cairo’s Manshiyat Nasser, a slum also known as “Garbage City,” she used to spend her leisure time searching through the trash heaps scattered about to locate paper and supplies to indulge her love of drawing and painting.
She is currently 34 years old and manages a nonprofit organization that inspires kids in the neighborhood to recycle and explore their surroundings in inventive and useful ways.
Several streets and buildings in Manshiyat Nasser, a district of unpainted brick structures east of central Cairo, are piled high with trash that has been gathered from all over the city and has been treated or recycled clandestinely.
“The entire concept is that recycling is all around these kids continuously. Why not show them how to recycle in a way that lessens our consumption and is advantageous to society? she said.
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Mesaha, Saeed’s non-profit organization, which means “space” in Arabic, organizes weekly recycling events for 150–200 kids between the ages of 6 and 15.
The kids create piggy banks, musical instruments, puzzles, and paintings out of plastic bottles, twigs, cardboard, paper, and cans during two-day workshops.
Children may connect with their environment and expand their minds through these activities, according to Saeed. How can I make an impact on my environment rather than just being annoyed at it?
Saeed wants to extend the initiative to further regions of Egypt. She remarked, “I hope that those kids will grow up to be change agents in their future careers or wherever they go.”
