By Heather Walker (Communications Officer)
02 Feb 2011

There are 185 brick kilns in Helwan each kiln using about 20 working animals. Lines of smoking chimneys dominate the horizon and there are endless rows of bricks drying in the sun or being carried by donkeys and mules. These poor animals work all day, transporting tonnes of bricks back and forth without shade, food or water while they’re working.

Lorry loads of cement are brought into the brick kilns every day. Six workers operate machines turning cement into wet bricks with tractors taking them to the drying area. Donkeys and mules used to transport wet bricks and struggled to keep up with the production process. They were often beaten to make them work faster. But this has thankfully stopped.

Once the bricks are dried, workers load them onto carts pulled by donkeys and mules for firing. The animals pull around a tonne of bricks in one load with a single animal pulling an average of 25 – 40 tonnes a day. The Brooke recommends the animals carry half this amount but the workers are paid per brick so all the carts are heavily overloaded. The animals carry at least double the amount they should. If they refuse, they are beaten.

Most of the cart drivers are children and they simply don’t know any better. Dr Ammr, a Brooke vet tells me that he tries to teach them not to beat their animals but he is often met with the response of ‘If I stop beating my animal, will you tell my father to stop beating me?’ It’s a difficult and harsh reality. Most of the workers here earn between 30 – 50 EGP (Egyptian pounds), equivalent to £3 - £5 a day. A sandwich in my hotel costs more than this. It’s no wonder the country is up in arms.
 

Dr Ammr then takes me on a tour of the kilns, explaining the production process and introducing me to some of the workers. We climb to the top of the furnace and watch young boys unload the bricks from the donkey as it patiently waits. The donkey is then reversed back out of the furnace door to be loaded with more bricks. This process is repeated for 6 hours and throughout the summer months this time is doubled.

We walk to the front of the furnace to see the bricks being churned out – it’s so hot that the men working here are boiling water on top of the furnace. They work here all day and only wear flimsy sandals to protect their feet from the scorching heat; I can only bear it for a few minutes.
 

I meet Mamoud – an 11 year old boy with the biggest green eyes and dirtiest face I’ve ever seen. He spends half the day working at the brick kilns with his Dad and the other half at school. Mamoud doesn’t look 11; he looks a lot younger due to the poor diet he is forced to live on. He watches me talk with a huge grin on his face – I don’t think he’s ever met a foreigner before, let alone a western woman who keeps saying ‘awww’ at the donkeys.

My final stop is to visit a ‘bad’ brick kiln; one where there is little regard for animal welfare and a lack of co-operation from the owner. All the animals I see are like skeletons with awful wounds caused by ill-fitting harnesses or beatings. One donkey has an infected wound the size of a dinner plate on his back caused from a badly-fitted harness and flies smother it. Another has a red-raw wound on its hind caused by beatings from the driver. It’s been covered with brick dust as they believe it will help the wound to ‘heal’. I feel like telling them the way for the wound to ‘heal’ is to stop beating them but I know it’s not that simple.

I am relieved to get back into the cool comfort of the Brooke jeep and head back to the office. On the journey back we pass some of the poorest districts in Helwan, and I witness some very sad sights. Bare-footed children play in the road, women sell rotting groceries and fish and homeless people scour the rubbish dumps for food.

The stark reality of people and animal’s lives reminds me that the Brooke has a long way to go.

So I end my day feeling very humble, yet with a great feeling of inspiration and determination. Tomorrow I will be interviewing some of the workers, Sherif the stableman, Sheikh Ali the owner and Dr Ammr the vet. I want to try and capture in a film what I have experienced here today in the hope people will have a better understanding of the Brooke’s work, the context we work in and our hopes for the future of all working animals.

Check out the photo gallery on Flickr or visit the Brooke's website