Egypt
South of Cairo, the slum of 15 May in Helwan has 5,000 garbage collectors (mostly Coptic-Orthodox) who collect, bring back, sort and recycle waste in the largest sorting centre in the Middle East.
Living conditions are extremely precarious. There is only one water pipe for the whole town, and the electricity stolen from the neighbouring souk is brought back to the slum by very rudimentary electrical installations.
The 650 families live in small shacks made of bricks or sheet metal, on the ground, often with just a few bundles of straw as a roof. Around these dwellings, the children of the garbage collectors, without shoes, play in the piles of rubbish that accumulate.
To crown their misery, in the spring of 2020, the torrential rains that hit Cairo literally washed away half of the slum, leaving behind an apocalyptic scene.
In this slum, Father Athanasius, a Coptic Orthodox priest, serves as the civil and moral authority. In 2007, he had the church of Pope Shenouda III built in the central square, a preserved place that serves as a haven of peace for the inhabitants.
In the compound, opposite the church, SOS Chrétiens d’Orient is building a hospital. It consists of a few consultation rooms, rooms for patients and a very dilapidated pharmacy. Unfortunately, the lack of equipment and staff does not allow for good working conditions and the doctor is only called in for emergencies.
The construction of a second floor would allow the permanent presence of a doctor on the spot, the installation of a pharmacy, consultation rooms and an operating theatre, favouring medical practice in the slum.
For this, the garbage collectors of the slum of 15 May need your help. Your donations would help to install electricity on this floor. Take a big step in the construction of this hospital and in the development of medical activity in this slum.
Help improve the living conditions of the garbage collectors of the slum of 15 May by offering them the opportunity to receive medical treatment.
The workers are ready to work, the doctors are just waiting to receive the patients. All we need is your donations to make this project a reality.
Without the hospital, a sick or injured person ends up either dying or being amputated, we really need a hospital here. And all this work is being done thanks to SOS Chrétiens d’Orient.
