Partners 

Spirit of youth

Our partner school, Spirit of Youth, provides Montessori education for child laborers in the garbage village of Egypt. This recycling school is an innovative social enterprise that was started to fill two major gaps: 1) the need to provide child laborers and garbage collectors an education 2) incentivizing education so that parents are willing to send their children to school, with a unique "cash for trash" model. Spirit of Youth runs a buy-back center at their school, where children bring their  empty shampoo bottles that are fraudulently refilled and resold. Enrolled Zabbaleen (garbage collectors) students are paid for each recovered container and in exchange are schooled in reading, writing, math, art, drama, and computing skills.

By incentivizing education for families, children are able to attend school and receive an education they otherwise would not have access to. Spirit of Youth won the Schwab Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2006 for its innovative trash for cash model and success in incentivizing education among informal communities.

Learn more about Spirit of Youth here: http://soyzabaleen.blogspot.com/