Nikolai Linares (Danish School of Journalism)
Dreams in New Cairo
Award of Excellence
International Picture Story
If you drive out of Cairo, Egypt, in an easterly direction you will hit the desert. But it won’t take many minutes before constructions sites with nice villas rise as far as the eye can see. This is New Cairo. Here many young men have their daily work with building houses, that they them-selfs will never be able to afford. In a small three-room-appartment in the workers living area lives 11 of the workers. Each one with dreams that are very different from the life they are living now. All of the young men from the appartment are from the village of Beni Suef. A city 150 km south of Cairo. They all know each other through family and parents' friends. They rarely work in the same building for several days, but are hired when some are missing a team to cut, carry and set up steel for the foundations.
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One of the 11 young men in the apartment is Walid Miled (right). He is 21 years old and one of the strongest workers in the group. Today he was up at 5 am, but unfortunately already home again at 1 pm. There was not enough work for him and four of the others from the apartment. To the left lies Hamada Ahmad. He is 18 years old.
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The area of New Cairo is 700 square kilometres. Many of the houses being worked on will become villas, which means that those who will live here are upper class. None of the workers think that they will ever have the opportunity to live in such a house.
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It's just after six o'clock in the morning and most of the young men from the apartmentare are eating breakfast together in the apartment's largest room. Today they will be divided into two groups and work on two different buildings.
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Walid puts on his best looks after taking a shower, even though the evening is not going to offer anything exciting. On a good day he earn between 10 and 15 USD. It makes him really proud that every month he can send money to his parents. He has a girlfriend in his hometown and Walid is sure it's her he will one day marry. And his parents knows this to. If everything goes well, he will have earned enough money to get married within a year. He reckons that it will cost around 5.000 USD.
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Many of the young men in the apartment think it's great to live together. Even though they are eleven. And there is always somebody ready to joke around with each other. "We fit well together and share everything. But we are young men, so our temper can go up. Usually once or twice a week some get in a little fight", says one of the men.
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Nadi Miled (right) is 20 years old and is the only man in the appartment that prays every single day. Walid(left) also pray sometimes, but today he is too tired. They are cousins.
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"I talk to my girlfriend about twice a day. The others tease me a little when she calls, but I do not care. I tell her how much I love and miss her. I dream one day to marry her and live in an apartment with a garden and space to have two children and two horses. And fruit trees."
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The plan is that in 2020 four million people will live in New Cairo.