In an exciting experience, Moroccan content makers donned the uniforms of sanitation workers and accompanied the workers of a cleaning company in Rabat on their daily journey to clean up neighborhoods and collect garbage.
They are young activists on social media and have millions of followers, including the doctor, the comedian, the contractor, the blogger and the civil actor, who decided to participate in this human experience to pass messages to the public through video episodes.
Miscellaneous messages
The initiative was supervised by the Ataa Charitable Foundation and a production company in coordination with a cleaning company in Rabat, and the episodes are broadcast on Wednesday and Thursday on the foundation's YouTube channel, which are the episodes that have met and praised its goals and the positive messages it publishes.
Jalal Aweita, head of the Ataa Foundation, says to Al-Jazeera Net that they launched this program with the participation of a number of influencers and content makers on social media sites with the aim of restoring respect to sanitation workers, and educating society on the value of this noble work, and the need to change some daily behaviors that seem simple, but have a great impact on A Cleaning Worker's Diary.
Ataa Charitable Foundation is a civil association whose purpose is to serve and educate the community, and to provide a helping hand and assistance to people in need. It also aims to keep pace with local projects to reduce exclusion and social disparities.
Among the participants in the episodes of the program entitled "Mashi Zabal" (Not a Zabala) Foundation President Jalal Aweita, blogger and civic activist Farah Ashbab, doctor Ayman Boubouh, content creators Ihssan Bin Alloush, Amin Al-Aouni, and others.
Knowledge is not the same as experience
"I had expectations and ideas that I carried as a citizen about this world, but when I put on the janitor's suit and got on the garbage truck, I started to see this work from another angle," says Amin Al-Aouni, one of the program participants and a content maker.
The secretary accompanied the cleaners on their daily journey through the neighborhoods to collect waste, carried garbage bags and emptied containers, and faced their daily challenges and their hard work to make the city clean. He concluded, as he says, that "knowledge is incomparable to experience."
Moroccans call the cleaning worker "the mall of the dung" (mall: the owner), but Amin Al-Aouni believes, after his experience and sharing with them a day of their professional life, that the "mall of dung" is the citizen and not the one that brings him together.
Al Sidrati comedian and content maker during his participation in the program (Al Jazeera)
What affected Amin the most - as he told Al-Jazeera Net - when he found, while accompanying the workers, pieces of bread mixed with the rest of the waste in the midst of unpleasant odors, he wondered at the time with himself how this worker could return to his home and eat his food normally without losing those smells and those pictures of his appetite.
And what provoked his anger when he found a container without a wheel, and had to cooperate with the rest of the workers to bring it closer to the truck with the intention of unloading it.
Farah Ashbab and Ihssan Bin Aloush (center) with the cleaning staff (Al Jazeera)
Amin lived through these scenes for only one day, accompanied by the workers, in addition to other scenes such as throwing garbage bags on the ground, stealing container caps, and placing stones in them, which leads to disrupting the waste squeezing machine.
Amin says, "When I faced these situations by assuming the role of a sanitation worker, I discovered what these people are suffering and some reckless behaviors of citizens that make it difficult for workers to work, and I found that the citizen is a partner in the cleanliness of his surroundings and is responsible to a large extent, because simple behaviors can relieve them of the burden such as sorting and placing waste in their places and preserving On containers. "
A woman and a janitor
Farah Ashbab, a civic activist, blogger and content creator, accompanied one of the sanitation workers during the program, wandering with her on the streets of one of the neighborhoods on her mission to sweep it.
For Farah, the experience was beautiful and I learned a lot from it. She says, "I was expecting the difficulty of the work and I was ready for it, but when it required me to carry a bag full of garbage, it emitted unpleasant odors, I could not do that, and I wondered how this woman does that daily?"
Content maker Farah Ashbab (right) accompanies her cleaning lady at her job (Al Jazeera)
The cleaning workers in Moroccan society face many challenges, this work is classified within the low professions, and workers receive only the minimum wage, and the task is more difficult when this worker is a woman.
Farah concluded that the work of a woman in street sweeping and cleaning makes the challenge double, especially since women in general face various obstacles in life for social, cultural and economic reasons.
However, what impressed her was the cleaning workforce, the mastery of her task, her pride in her income-generating profession, which helped her face the costs of life, as well as her dreams and her great ambitions to improve her social situation.
Do not judge
Farah called on people to always put themselves in the place of others before judging and categorizing them, as every person has his dreams, aspirations and dignity that everyone must respect.
She added, "We put ourselves in the place of the cleaners who shared their day, people describe us as influential, and I think that the real influencer is anyone who influences people and delivers an honest feeling and positive messages."
Amin believes that the media has an important role in influencing the journey of changing stereotypes and some of the usual behaviors that citizens do and make it difficult for sanitation workers to work and do not maintain the cleanliness of neighborhoods. Young learners are taught to appreciate the role of cleaners.