Did you know this about the Nile?

A study found that the ten river systems with the highest plastic content are responsible for around 90% of the global contribution of plastic into the sea. The Nile affects 10% of Africa’s landmass, as it runs through 11 countries: Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Egypt, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, the DRC, Eritrea, and Kenya. In 2012, Nile Basin countries had a total population of over 450 million (around 40% of the African population), 257 million of which live within the Nile Basin boundary. It’s thus not so surprising that we love the Nile and want to protect it!

About VeryNile
Bassita joined forces with the Egyptian social start-up Greenish in 2018 to co-found an initiative that breaks boundaries through its wide range of ideas and our combined network of volunteers and partners.
VeryNile was established as the first initiative to develop large scale means to clean the Nile while raising awareness on the importance to protect our environment. VeryNile organizes cleaning events and develops eco-friendly solutions to remove trash from the river. We aim to create a sustainable, efficient system that allows for continuous and effective cleaning of the Nile. We do this by operating on three main levels: cleaning (through clean-up events and building a cleaning boat), preventing (by raising awarenessa and campaiging to ban the use of single use plastic bags), and recycling (through our partnerships with the Zabaleen community and the social start-up Upfuse).
more on verynile.org
Public Support & Media Recognition
Since its launch, VeryNile has accomplished an incredible amount of change, attracting attention from more than 100 media entities, including the most popular TV shows in Egypt. Within three hours of our first event, 1.5 ton of trash from the Nile was removed by 250 volunteers. At the second event, 5 tons of trash was removed from the Nile with the help of 350 volunteers. So far, VeryNile has removed a total of 21.5 tons of trash from the Nile with the help of over 1,400 volunteers.
35 tons
Trash Removed
3500
Volunteers
100 +
Publications

Initiated by

Partners

Clean-Up Events

VeryNile organizes various clean-up events where volunteers can gather in one predetermined location to physically clean the banks of the Nile. Volunteers are provided with gloves, boots, nets, and other equipment to ensure that the cleaning is done safely and properly. Other than garbage removal and cleaning, the clean-up events have various components to them: they raise awareness about the cause and the need for change, and they generate exposure and visibility while engaging youth.

Attendees are educated on the dangers of plastic once it ends up in our environment, the massive garbage problem we have on a global level, as well as the ways in which they can minimize their consumption of plastic. VeryNile will organize four clean-up events per year to ensure that visibility is maintained, and that volunteers can experience the empowering activity of cleaning the Nile themselves.

Sign up to volunteer at our clean-up events

VeryNile innovates different ways to clean the Nile, such as building the first cleaning boat in the Nile, collaborating with Cairene fishermen to collect garbage from the Nile, and partnering with recycling initiatives to create eco-friendly bags that can be used to limit the use of single-suse plastic bags.