Climb every mountain.

Abstract

In Egypt, the Association of Garbage Collectors for Community Development (AGCCD), created and administered with government support by Zabballeen (low-income people who have collected, sorted, and recycled Cairo's mountains of garbage since 1970), serves an urban settlement of 16,000 where entire households supplement their living from scavenging by raising pigs, chickens, and rabbits. The AGCCD employs 44 women in a primary health care and credit program for women that involves home visits, provision of primary health care, disease prevention, immunization, and reproductive health care (RHC). The low status of the women has meant that the birth of a girl is rarely registered, so that Zabballeen girls can not enjoy the benefits of citizenship. The main goal of the AGCCD has been to increase the role of women in RHC decision-making in their families. Many women have been successful in convincing their husbands of the need for permanent contraception and have resisted efforts to have daughters married at an early age. Recently, RHC discussions have been conducted with men. Women have also begun to actively oppose female genital mutilation. Future challenges for AGCCD include gender training, increasing the birth registration of girls, forming new groups of girls and women to promote women's health by improving gender relations, and providing legal advice and assistance to women, especially those whose births were not registered.