The campaign launched by Al-Masry Al-Youm two weeks ago has drawn many reactions and has been very successful not only among people in Cairo but also among senior statesmen, public figures, actors and radio workers. The newspaper received yesterday a notification from Saad Aweida, director of the office of Social Solidarity Minister Ali Moselhi. Attached to the notification were pictures of piles of garbage in Omarat Misr lil Tameer in Zahra el-Maadi (seven quarter). He also wrote the name of the quarter president (Brigadier General Hamdy Abou Hashim) and the name of the cleaning company (Europe 2000). In his notification, Aweida asked for his pictures to be published so that officials may react and remove the garbage. The newspaper called el-Maadi City President, Major General Ahmed Hany, and he decided to refer the cleaning company officials to investigations. The campaign has been joined by several public figures, such as former Media Minister Mansour Hassan, woman writer Sakina Fouad, scenarist Osama Anwar Akasha, comedian Mohamed Heneidy, and director Khaled Yousef. On Tuesday, Al-Masry Al-Youm received the visit of a delegation from the radio. Abdel Rahman Rashad, chairman of the General Program Network, proposed to participate in the campaign through the program "Hena el-Qahera" [Here Cairo], which is broadcast on Thursdays and Fridays. The program receives people's complaints at the phone numbers 25792303 and 25740152 as well as text messages at the 4406. The success of the campaign over the past two weeks has pushed the newspaper direction to extend it to all governorates starting from next Saturday under the slogan "For a clean Egypt". Former Information Minister Mansour Hassan said this was a serious idea, as this was a public service which had been agreed upon by all social categories (normal people, public figures and officials). Writer Sakina Fouad said the campaign was the first civilized one capable of reaping fruits, adding it showed how the press can change society. Osama Anwar Okasha said this was the first time a campaign had been able to put pressure on the government, which he said had not carried out its role at first. He said this campaign made officials rush to clean the streets. Mohamed Honeidy said he was very happy with the campaign and backed the idea of extending it to the rest of Egypt. Movie director Khaled Youssef proposed publishing 20 pictures of garbage from many streets every day in order to embarrass quarter presidents.
