Ghamrawy Sherif
Organization: Basata
Year Founded: 1976
Country: Egypt
Website: Not available
Geographic Area of Impact: Egypt.
Model: Hybrid Non-Profit ,Social Business
Focus: Environment,Waste Management.
Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Egypt, 2008 The Innovation Sherif El Ghamrawy has fought relentlessly for the sustainability and conservation of Egypt’s natural resources on both land and sea. He is the founder of two complementary organizations. He pioneered Basata as the first eco-lodge in Egypt in 1986, thereby establishing South Sinai and the gulf of Aqaba as an eco-tourism destination with an emphasis on cultural exchange and respect for the environment. With the large scale developments that followed, Hemaya, a local NGO, was then created to deal with waste management on 150 kilometers of coastline with marine and reef protection patrols and to empower local communities to run these programs. Background Egypt’s citizens generate approximately 25,000 tons of garbage daily, and that number increases annually. The Sinai Peninsula and Gulf of Aqaba are particularly vulnerable regions, where the consequences of massive tourism in Sharm El Sheikh and Dahab have had a dramatic impact on both land and sea in only one decade. From overflowing landfills, hazardous disposal of trash like burning or dumping into the sea, little attention has been paid to waste management and environmental protection. In addition, these lands were almost solely inhabited by about 15,000 Bedouins who are completely omitted from any tourism plans by developers, yet suffer from the impacts (such as loss of livestock to disease from rubbish dumps). Strategy Basata started in an undeveloped bay called Nuweiba 22 years ago as a unique eco-lodge, putting great concern on environmental protection, social integration and development and preventing negative impact of tourism to the local society. Today, it is one of the few unspoiled bays and coral reefs left on the coast. About 12 years after starting Basata, a rapid development in tourism started in the area, causing different kinds of pollution, particularly solid waste, from which arose the need to establish an organization to monitor, regulate and provide awareness and a legal framework to minimize the impact of tourism on nature and local society. Hemaya was born and also started creating other jobs than tourism for locals Egyptians. When Sherif and the Hemaya team first approached the problem of solid waste, they realized that they were dealing with three different types of wastes; Tourist establishments' waste, the Bedouins' waste, and that of the people who moved from the Nile Delta to the area. They realized that they had to find a new way to deal with these different types of waste, and so designed a system to have the waste sorted at its source. Hemaya collects the waste for roughly 60,000 people from hotels and camps, households, and cities' streets on a daily basis in three cities of South Sinai Governorate; Taba, Nuweiba, and Dahab. This waste would otherwise have never be taken care of, or dealt with in an environmentally friendly manner – it was previously dumped or burned. Waste is sorted at source into organic and non-organic. The organic is distributed amongst the Bedouins as food for cattle, whereas the non-organic goes to the transfer station built by Hemaya, to be sorted into 15 kinds of plastic, 40 kinds of glass, and all different types of metals, cloth, and paper. It is then packed, or shredded or pressed and sent off to Cairo for the recycling process. Only 15% of the waste collected is deemed un-recyclable and therefore dumped. Half of the income earned by selling the recyclable waste is distributed among the workers. Hemaya has also expanded its activities so as to be more interactive with the community and to affect more lives in direct and indirect ways. It started initiating clean up campaigns organized with local schools, getting the teachers and the students involved in cleaning the city, the beaches, and the valleys, and educating them to keep them clean. It aesthetically renovated Nuweiba and Taba, by planting 120 palm trees and revitalizing the ideas of green and clean. Due to the trust built with governmental authorities, Hemaya is also uniquely responsible for the cleanliness, maintenance and security of Dahab hospital and soon to be responsible for Nuweiba and Taba hospitals as soon as they are complete. Hemaya also takes action on coastal protection through a reef watch patrolling system, by collaborating with authorities to make sure that no illegal fishing takes place, and to preserve the corals that are in an ecologically critical situation. The reef rangers are local Bedouins who know the area very well. This is the first time Bedouins are given such responsibility and empowered and skilled in jobs that are diversified from tourism The Entrepreneur Sherif El Ghamrawy was born in Agouza, Egypt and studied at the German school in Cairo, later receiving his degree in Civil Engineering from Cairo University. He immediately turned his attention to environmental protection which was mostly unrecognised at the time and was a self employed free lancer contractor/consultant on environmental affairs when he finally found the place which would fulfil his dreams in 1982 – in South Sinai. It took four years to get permission to build Basata, the first eco-lodge in Egypt. It is through Sherif’s personal commitment to the environment and the local community of Bedouin Egyptians that he has been able to get the support, network and resources to establish the waste management and environmental protection work of Hemaya. He remains active in environmental affairs in Egypt and abroad he is a consultant to EU as well as a trainer in environmental literacy. Sherif has received numerous awards for Promoting Tourism, Best Solid Waste Management programs, WTM international award for best project in marine environment and Best NGO in South Sinai for 2007.
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