“The Trash Transformation.”

Rony moved from Brazil to Egypt, to work on a special project--trash! In Brazil, he owned a successful company that recycled electronic equipment, but eventually Rony felt like he was being called in another direction by God.

“Rony”

“I have this passion to help people. I thank the Lord because He gave me a wife who shares the same passion and has the same dream. So when almost 3 years ago we decided as a couple to give our lives to help others and to do what God wants from us, we started to see what God wants from us and He led us here. So for us the most important thing is to help others and to follow God’s steps.”

If you ever visit Cairo, you might notice there aren’t many places to put trash. Throughout the city, piles of trash can be seen burning along the sides of the roads. Rony moved to Nile Union Academy with the goal of cleaning up the campus and community around the Adventist school.

Rony noticed that the wall surrounding the campus had become a community dump for trash. When Rony first came, the city workers would only clean the wall area once every two months. He started the project by going out and cleaning the wall area every day.

“It’s fun to notice it day by day. They keep throwing the garbage on our wall. They see us cleaning every day but they keep coming. Sometimes I ask some of them why and they say, ‘it’s because we have no other options, no other solutions. So I’m sorry but your wall is our only solution.’”

As the piles of garbage piled up every day, people told him that he would never last and should give up. After about a year, Rony has built relationships with community leaders and they have recognized his efforts. Now, they send trash pickup 3 times a week!

Rony works closely with the academy students to educate and employ them to be stewards of the earth.

“It’s fun to see now the students come and say, ‘I want to work with you.’ Before, no one wanted to work with the garbage. They used to collect the garbage and burn the garbage inside the school. That was the last job that they can pick up, that they choose to work for the year or semester. Now, we have a line waiting to work with us next semester. They want to work with us. They can see something good in that. That’s good to see in the students.”

Rony has created trash systems to teach them the proper way of disposal and recycling.

“What we are planning to do inside the campus of this school is teaching the students, workers, teachers to separate the garbage in 3 different ways. We separate by color to make it easier for everyone to understand.”

Green, means anything recyclable goes inside. Brown cans get food waste or compost that is used for the academy farm. And gray is for regular trash or for anything you are unsure about. They use this system on campus and are slowly introducing it to the community.

Once things are separated, all recyclables are brought to the campus sorting facility. Plastics, glass, and cardboard are all sorted and organized for the next step.

“We press them in this machine to sell it. So we can clean the community, try to have a better way to treat the garbage, and also try to make money to improve human development for the community. So that’s what we do inside here.”

Since they have begun, they have moved more than 250 tons of garbage! However, their plans don’t end with cleanup. Community members are not only changing their view of how to treat trash, but they will eventually benefit from a beautiful community park outside the walls of the academy.

“We are here to try to bring some human developments. To be a good influence for the community. To show the community how we can work together to make a relationship with the community. To make their lives better in all ways. Emotionally, socially. To be a good influence over them and change some lives through the way we are living here and the changes we are bringing here.”

Please pray as Rony and Nile Union Academy work to improve their community. Pray that they can build relationships with the people around them.

“That’s not a dream job. No one dreams to collect garbage every day for the rest of their life. It’s not my dream job. So for me it’s the best place because I really understand that’s what God wants from me now. To help this community, understand them, to change their lives, to improve their lives. So I’m very happy with that. It’s not the dream job. It’s not the life I used to have in Brazil, but I’ve never been so happy in my life because I am following what God wants for us.”