Arbeit und Dritte Welt

Dear friends of Egypt,

Our report on our visit to some projects in Egypt is finally finished. We can say that everything is going very well in the projects. The money that we and others brought is being used very sparingly and in the service of the poorest of the poor – whether in the villages near Beni Suef or with the garbage collectors in Cairo. We are very grateful that we were able to send help again.

We thank you all very much for this. Unfortunately, the need in the country continues to grow inexorably. In the last two years, meat prices in Egypt have doubled and are now significantly higher than in Germany. The poor would at least eat a piece of meat for the festive season. But they have to fight for their daily bread alone. Subsidized bread is often unobtainable.

Thank you for all your good thoughts that accompany the selfless helpers of the poor and for your deeds!

Your Fouad and Barbara

On 16.03.2010, Klaus Ingelmann, head of the U25 team at the Jobcenter Hildesheim, visited us together with interns Franziska Küttner and Kevin Pastewsky. Both are students of social pedagogy at HAWK Hildesheim and Braunschweig University of Applied Sciences, are learning about everyday life in the employment service and wanted to find out about our work as a project provider.

This visit was very welcome for us, as we believe that there is far too little contact and dialog with students. Both sides could benefit from regular exchanges – not least for the benefit of the unemployed.

On March 4, 2010, our responsible company supervisor from the Norddeutsche Metallberufsgenossenschaft, Ing. Peter Reichardt, invited our employees to a training course.

In cooperation with our social services department, qualified social education worker Sabine Jäger, training courses on this topic are held regularly. This is important because new colleagues are constantly joining us due to the fixed-term employment contracts and others who are now well versed in the subject unfortunately have to leave.

It is precisely from this point of view that practicing workplace safety is a necessary requirement. It would be unacceptable if someone were to come to harm in the context of work financed on a temporary basis by the Jobcenter. Special responsibility therefore also lies with the supervisors, the management and the Executive Board.

Although we have always succeeded in keeping the number of accidents at work low, dangers lurk everywhere. Accordingly, in his presentation, Ing. Reichardt once again focused our attention on our day-to-day work and the routines that often lead to carelessness. Using many practical examples, he made it convincingly clear that the argument “Nothing has ever happened to me” is only valid until something happens.

Dear friends,

Here at last is the report on our visit to the plastic recycling project that many of you have supported.

Two important and very good news: Thanks to a large donation from friends in Hildesheim, the project can be continued. The rather primitive small-scale operations of the waste collectors for plastic recycling have taken a big step forward.
This will certainly improve the overall plastic recycling of the waste collectors in Cairo. The aim is to create jobs here, where sources of income were lost after the loss of the pigs last year.
The other good news is that we have now also been able to integrate a women’s component. The women waste collectors have been particularly affected by the loss of the pigs. In future, care will be taken to ensure that priority is given to promoting recycling companies that also employ women. Jobs for women are mainly in the pre-sorting of plastic waste and in “finishing”. In the latter, they use knives or small scissors to smooth out the burrs that are created when the plastic sandals, clothes hangers etc. are pressed.

The accounting of the project’s expenditure is really professional. Not a cent goes to waste!

We hope that the project can continue. There are enough requests for support and the training and education component is of course also very important.

Many greetings – thank you to all donors,

Your Fouad and Barbara

The following email reached us from Barbara and Fouad Ibrahim:

Dear friends,

At the end of October we again visited the aid project for the plastic recyclers among the waste collectors of Ezbet En-Nawwar. The situation among the garbage collectors has never been so bad, it’s fair to say. There is no longer a sour smell of garbage over the settlement – the garbage as many of you used to see it there no longer exists at all. The garbage collectors can no longer do anything with normal household waste, most of which consists of vegetable waste. Their pigs were killed in April/May this year – thousands of pigs. In Ezbet En-Nawwar, it is reported that only one sow survived in the settlement. When she gave birth to two piglets after a short time, the police soon arrived and killed them too.
No more household waste and no more pigs in the garbage collectors’ settlement to feed on this waste – a catastrophe for the garbage collectors.
The women are crying, the children are hungry. Many can no longer attend school in the waste picker area because their parents have no money to pay the fees. Men and young people drive their carts up and down the streets in search of cardboard and plastic – the only things the waste collectors can use at the moment.

This shows that our idea of focusing on plastic recycling and improving this process in small businesses was the right one. The number of breakers has recently increased from a good 50 to over 80 today.
Our enterprising project partner Gamal Zekrie has managed to rehabilitate the first businesses with the funds provided by the AFK, including some groups of Egyptians living in Europe. There is a great willingness among those affected to participate. They are happy when the electrical systems in their workshops are no longer life-threatening, when the plastered and painted walls no longer soak up the toxic fumes and when dust and dirt from the floor no longer get into the machines and destroy them because the floors are now fixed and tiled and the first machines have already been refurbished.
What is still urgently needed are new engines, which mostly come from abroad, but which can be bought in Egypt – if you have the necessary money.

We therefore continue to hope for generous donors. The project described in the appendix secures the livelihoods of many families (see the ECRED statistics in the report) and creates sustainable jobs.

What worries us greatly is the fact that the loss of the pigs has meant that the women have lost both their jobs and their important role in the economy of the waste collectors and that the children are searching more than ever for usable waste on the streets instead of going to school.
Unfortunately, we have not yet come up with a solution to these major problems….

We send you all our warmest greetings and thank you for your interest and support.

Fouad and Barbara

The initiative for this joint project between the city council, Johannishofstiftung and our association was taken by city councillor Dirk Schröder after he took over responsibility for the asylum and homeless shelters in his department. “The stairwell and corridors were in a deplorable and unacceptable condition. These walls hadn’t seen paint for decades,” explained Dirk Schröder. “We simply wanted to take action to give the more than 100 people living here a little quality of life.”

Together with Helga Pietruschka, Managing Director of “Wohnen und Betreuen”, we worked with the residents and freelance artist Ole Görgens to design the walls. This was something completely new for the residents and our staff – restraint and shyness characterized the first steps, influenced by culture and language. However, after the first picture was completed, the spark was also passed on to the residents in practice.

More murals are to follow, the designs have already been completed.

Once again, Chairman Fred Schulz was able to welcome many guests from business, trade unions, administration and politics to the traditional kale dinner. This was a way for the association and employees to thank everyone for their support this year. As always, the kale was home-grown and prepared by the employees.

Ms. Schweimler from Braunschweiger Wiederaufbau e.G. presented a cheque and some guests took the opportunity to make a donation to purchase a building block to support the completion of our workshop.

Together with ETUI, the Caritas homework help service, the Aktivspielplatz of the city of Hildesheim, the Beamtenwohnungsverein and Wiederaufbau e.G., we organized a lantern procession and a fire show at the entrance to our premises in Stadtfeld on 17 November from 6:30 pm.

The lantern procession turned out to be a little difficult to carry out, as children, young people and their parents from our neighborhood really only had one thing on their minds: the fire show by Team Feuer und Flamme with Birgit Deike and Sabine Grujic!

At 8 p.m. the time had finally come! The show began and more than 150 large and small spectators standing close together breathlessly watched the spectacular performance of Feuer und Flamme, accompanied by music. The Kulturfabrik provided the appropriate music system free of charge. Hot chocolate and fresh waffles were served before and after.

The city of Hildesheim honored the first chairman and founder of our association, Fred Schulz, for his almost 15 years of voluntary work for the employment of the long-term unemployed and severely disabled by awarding him a gold bracteate. This bracteate bears the inscription “I am a Hildesheimer” in Latin.

Mayor Kurt Machens paid tribute to Schulz, who tirelessly championed the interests and dignity of the unemployed, at a ceremony in the town hall. Since the association was founded in 1995, over 1000 people have found work, albeit on a temporary basis. Schulz is “the Iron Gustav of our time”.

Schulz, who was honored by companions and friends, said that he accepted the bracteate on behalf of the association’s employees – they deserved the award for their commitment and hard work and explained that politicians must continue to demand a permanently subsidized second job market.

Schulz expressed special thanks to his wife Hanne, without whose support he would not have been able to do this additional work.