EGYPT
Taking Out
the Trash
HOW RECYCLING TRANSFORMED A COMMUNITY
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“T
hey keep throwing garbage on our wall.” Day after day, the wall surrounding Nile Union Academy became the refuse dump for the community. “I’m sorry,” said the people, “but we have no other options.” You see, in Cairo, Egypt, there are not many places to put trash. Throughout the city, piles of trash can be seen burning along the side of the road. It seemed that there were no good solutions. There was simply too much trash and nowhere to put it.
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But God has special workers around the world, and He uses them in unique ways to His glory. Rony owned a successful company that recycled electronic equipment in Brazil, but he felt that God was calling him to do something bigger. "I have a passion for helping people, and I'm thankful that God gave me a wife who shares my desire," says Rony. "Three years ago, we dedicated our lives to serving others and asked God to send us to a place where we could be a blessing."
God led Rony and his wife to Nile Union Academy and gave them a passion for cleanup! Rony noticed that the campus wall had become the community dump, and he wanted to change that. Since the city workers cleared the area only every two months, he started his project by going out and cleaning around the wall every day. Garbage continued to pile up, and people told him that he would never last and should give up this impossible dream. Nonetheless, Rony pressed on. He began working closely with the academy students to educate and employ them to be stewards of the earth. “It’s fun to see the students come and say, ‘I want to work with you.’” No one wanted to work with the garbage before Rony started his program. The garbage was collected and burned inside the school. This was the least popular student job available, and it was almost always the last chosen. "Now we have a line of students waiting to work with me next semester. They can see something good in this project, and it's rewarding to see that they want to get involved," Rony says proudly. He has created a special system to teach the students the proper way to recycle or dispose of the trash left along their wall. Rony
