Basetah Fixes Cairo's Worst-Paved Roads

If you live near or have ever driven down Mostafa El-Nahas Street in Nasr City, you or more accurately your car can't possibly forget that it is riddled with the marks of an improperly paved road. Residents frequently complain about it but rarely ever take steps to improve the situation. After all, it is the government or the district administration’s responsibility.

But on Friday, February 17, a group named Basetah, which translates to "it's easy," took matters into their own hands. The collected some money and, over the course of a month, conducted field research on the worst-paved roads in Cairo and the easiest and cheapest ways to fix them. They then organized themselves into groups, blocked off parts of Mostafa El-Nahas Street and started fixing some of the potholes with rock and cement.

Basetah will be going back every Friday to fix all the holes on the street before moving on to other streets around the city. As part of what they're calling the Seket El Salama (The Safe Road) project, the group is also calling on residents around Cairo to take the initiative to fix the streets where they live or where their cars suffer from the most.

Basetah is a group of Egyptian youth who, after returning home from protests of the January 25 Revolution, wanted to do something to help Egypt after “the previous regime destroyed it.” With 12 core members and many volunteers, Basetah claims no political leanings. What do they have in common? A love for Egypt.

The group invites people to put their differences aside and use a passion for improving Egypt as the basis for communication and understanding. Ammar Yasser, an engineer and one of the founders and coordinator of Basetah, explained that the initiative has two branches, communication and building.

“The communication part is concerned with different sects of Egyptian society coming together and talking to each other to destroy the barriers and tension between different groups — liberals, people from the April 6 movement, Salafis, the Muslim Brotherhood and just normal citizens who don’t have political affiliations,” Yasser says.

Basetah's headquarters are every street. Members go out to the streets, set up a booth in an area and share their basic principles, ones they believe have been lost or forgotten in the Egyptian society. Those principles include exercising freedom without interfering with the freedom of others, cooperation, respecting different opinions, and democratic, peaceful discussions with people who have different perspectives.

Then comes the building. “The problem nowadays is that everybody is talking, but no one is taking [concrete] actions,” says Yasser. As a result, Basetah came up with a simple and efficient, yet important, development project. That's where the name comes from.

“We mean that our life is simple, but along the way it got so complicated,” says Yasser. “We hope that people will like the idea and [carry it] to other places as well.”

Much like any project, Basetah faced challenges when they started the street work. “Policemen weren’t so comfortable with what we were doing,” Yasser recalls, noting that the police would ask them for a permit, which they didn't have. But after the group explained what they were doing, the police let them continue. “Now we have a permit, so that shouldn’t be a problem anymore.”

They are also rather limited in their finances. “We try to do simple and inexpensive projects because we are not a registered organization yet so we can’t officially collect donations,” Yasser explains. “All the money we have [was donated by] us, family and friends.” He notes that their financing methods aren’t sustainable; they can’t keep paying out of their own pockets and, soon or later, the money will dry up.

But the Egyptian spirit makes up for the hard work and taxing finances. “People’s reactions were great. Everyone was so happy, and many were so surprised that we were doing something without [expecting any return],” says Yasser. “We also proved that people with different opinions can work together and make a change.”

“On my way home last Friday, I noticed that there were colorful banners and men in reflective green vests; I thought it was another traffic organization group from the Muslim Brotherhood, but when I got closer I saw them fixing the holes [in the streets]. I was very impressed with their organization and spirit as they weren’t blocking the road or anything,” recounts 30-year-old engineer Ahmed Mohamed, a resident of Mostafa El-Nahas Street. “They were very civilized. Besides, how many times do you find people paying money to fix something for the greater good? What’s impressive is that they do it from their own money and with their own hands, and they were all doctors, engineers, and successful people in general.”

Basetah’s message is certainly coming across as Mohamed is planning on joining them next Friday.

Almost every day many initiatives are born and many more die. Let’s hope that’s this one is a long way from fizzling out.