The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Featured image via Verynile

 

Egypt is known by many as the Land of the Nile, something we, unfortunately, sometimes fail to appreciate. Through the wrong daily habits of many Egyptians, large areas of the Nile have been filled with garbage, ruining the beautiful views, hurting the water life, and polluting our waters. Thankfully, members of our own community have risen to the task and have launched an initiative to clean our beloved River Nile.

So what happened exactly? Well, on Saturday 15 December, 9 of Egypt’s best collaborated to create a grand Nile cleaning event, with each company providing a helping hand. Greenish and Bassita took responsibility for managing the volunteering entities, Egypt Rowing & Sailing Club acted as the rallying and trash collection points, while Big Bear Production provided drones to cover the event. Other companies played their part as well, with the Nile Taxi, for example, providing boats for the press and VIPs in attendance, while Decathlon distributed 350 T-Shirts for all the volunteers. Other partners include Cairo Sea Scout and Giza Sea Scout, as well as the New Zealand Embassy and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

All of this was orchestrated by a team of volunteers believing in the enormous effects of small individual actions. It’s an initiative called Verynile, launched by the Egyptian social startup, Bassita. They gathered a band of dedicated volunteers looking to clean up our Nile. Among the volunteers were talented actors Arwa Gouda and Amr Saad.

Through a team of 200 volunteers, including a host of videographers and photographers, working for 3 hours, they were able to remove 1.5 tons of trash from the Nile, using fishing nets and biodegradable bags, collecting around 300 garbage bags in total. Just imagine how much more the power of volunteers could achieve in larger numbers and longer hours.