In a land where poverty strikes in the most populated areas, such as Egypt, rules and regulations have become stricter, and basic necessities are hard to come by. INJAZ EGYPT, an Egyptian education organization that works to bridge the gap between the education system and the private sector, awarded a small team under the name of Tafaseel with it’s Social Innovation Award on May 21st. Tafaseel is a team of students from American International School in Egypt (AIS) who have decided to save the environment by creating stylish school bags from recycled fabrics for students!
In some schools in Egypt, bringing a school bag to class is not allowed. So Tafaseel got together with their school’s administration and got them to agree to allow a special kind of bag. These students put together recycled fabrics and sew them into stylish school bags of various shapes and sizes.
The bags actually solved two very important issues. Collecting the fabrics solves the issue of thrown away fabrics polluting the environment and they also solved the hassle of having to carry books around without bags, since bags were not allowed. These bags help the environment and give back to the community!
By changing school rules, these bags represent the voice of the students. The students were able to make a statement by helping the environment and solving this internal school issue. Now, Egyptian students are allowed to carry only these Tafaseel bags into their classrooms, helping out the environment as well as having something to carry their books in now!
The bags are unisex and have pockets for mobile phones. They also come in different weights and sizes: small 80 pounds, medium 100 pounds, and large 150 pounds.
Each bag is a unique story to be told. Sewn together from different bits and pieces, it brings together these scattered fabrics to tell a story. And as Tafaseel puts it in their short video, “It’s not about the bag, it’s the story behind that bag that counts.”
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