Stories from the Field is an ongoing series from our United Nations Country Teams around the world, highlighting issues, success stories, and actions taken to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.
“We believe in real change and see no limits to our dreams – sometimes, normal volunteers like us have to take things into their own hands.”
Mostafa Habib has been one of the most active founders of VeryNile; an initiative to develop large scale means to clean the River Nile while raising awareness on the importance of protecting our environment. He raised funds for the cause and is planning to expand and grow VeryNile into a nation-wide movement with a huge impact.
VeryNile organizes cleaning events and develops eco-friendly solutions to remove trash from the river. It has shown just how many people are eager to be the change they wish to see in the world. In just a few months, VeryNile has garnered more than 1,000 volunteers, with eager supporters discussing environmental issues and volunteering opportunities with VeryNile.
Aside from organizing clean-ups, VeryNile provides training for volunteers on how to consume less plastic. This involves a combination of raising awareness in communities to lower plastic consumption, using social media to mobilize thousands of volunteers to manually clean the banks of the Nile, raising money from corporations to build cleaning boats, as well as finding innovative ways to recycle trash and reuse plastic. It is VeryNile’s dream to transform community attitudes towards plastic consumption and eventually evolve into a continent-wide movement. They aim for a completely clean Nile by 2030 with the help of all stakeholders.
As an initiative that combines volunteer action with protecting the environment, UN Volunteers Programme supports and is proud to partner with VeryNile, working together in promoting and integrating volunteerism to achieve the future that we want by 2030.
From UNIC Cairo