Cairo’s trash collectors lose an advocate
Cairo’s zabaleen form the backbone of the city’s garbage disposal system. They collect about a third of Cairo’s trash and traditionally haul it by donkey cart, as seen in this Oct. 20 photo. Largely scorned by Egyptian society, the trash scavengers recently lost one woman who had worked tirelessly for their well-being — Sister Emmanuelle, a Belgium-born French nun ...
Cairo's zabaleen form the backbone of the city's garbage disposal system. They collect about a third of Cairo's trash and traditionally haul it by donkey cart, as seen in this Oct. 20 photo. Largely scorned by Egyptian society, the trash scavengers recently lost one woman who had worked tirelessly for their well-being -- Sister Emmanuelle, a Belgium-born French nun who died Oct. 20 at age 99.
Cairo’s zabaleen form the backbone of the city’s garbage disposal system. They collect about a third of Cairo’s trash and traditionally haul it by donkey cart, as seen in this Oct. 20 photo. Largely scorned by Egyptian society, the trash scavengers recently lost one woman who had worked tirelessly for their well-being — Sister Emmanuelle, a Belgium-born French nun who died Oct. 20 at age 99.
See more photos of zabaleen at work and read more about them in this week’s photo essay, “Cairo’s Trash Collectors Down in the Dumps.”
Photo: KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images
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