According to Nosseir's classmate Ashraf, who designed the shirts, Egypt should be and could be cleaner. "It's a way of informing the community around us that it's a must to have clean streets." 

Nosseir said that on a tour of alleyways off Mohamed Mahmoud Street in Bab Al-Louq in Abdine "we found that people either made fun of us or described us as angels. Many of the residents around the school were surprised, asking, 'Why are you doing this to yourself?'" Nosseir said many of the onlookers thought it was school punishment. "On the contrary," Ali Abdel-Halim, the Arabic language supervisor who accompanied the girls on their tour told Al-Ahram Weekly. Abdel-Halim said the school's administration encouraged the girls, a true example, he believed, of loyalty and belonging that adults often accuse today's youth of not having. The situation reminded Abdel-Halim of when he was a university student in the 1960s during which he used to clean around his house during summer. "This was after the 1967 [Arab-Israeli] defeat. We wanted a good picture of our country by whatever means."

Heba Mansour, the Egyptian school manager, said it was one of the school's roles to raise environmental awareness among students via the curriculum. "But the practical side was their idea. They paid for the garbage bags and the T-shirts and chose the streets they wanted to clean." Mansour said the school approved the idea and consulted with the Abdine Local Council for organisation and security matters.

Khaled Bahgat, the assistant Abdine local district chief, joined the girls on their tour. Although he was touched by the girls' enthusiasm and courage, he had a tough time answering their questions about the role the local council should play in keeping the district clean. "Keeping the streets clean is the public's duty in the first place... we have a problem of a shortage of garbage men."

Marco Geebel, a German teacher living in Cairo for over two years, knew about the problem even before coming to Egypt. "It is my first time going out on a cleaning mission. It is a mission to raise people's awareness about cleanliness and to encourage them to do simple tasks." Geebel admits that the endeavour only scratches the surface "but at the same time it says that these girls who belong to the upper and middle class, are looking beneath the surface and are aware of Egyptian society's problems."

While the girls were excited with the experience, Zeineb El-Abasawi, a neighbourhood resident was visibly angry that such initiatives were not being launched in other places whose streets are strewn with garbage. "Go and take a look at areas that have tons of garbage. Some of them are just two kilometres from the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs," El-Abasawi argued.

Cleaning more than 20 side streets surrounding the school was not easy, according to Marie Klesh, the class representative. "Although we filled more than 40 garbage bags, we decided to return after two hours to the places we cleaned to see what happened.

"Some young men flirted, other women felt pity for us, and one woman dumped rubbish from her balcony and disappeared."

Because the outing that day was different, so was lunch. Many girls ordered a traditional meal, a mix of rice, lentil and macaroni called koshari. "Aren't we, after all, Egyptians?" was the message.

Al-Ahram Weekly