Duweiqa Photos

I took these photos in the homes of families who lives above the recent disaster area in the Moqattam slums of Cairo. These families homes are literally sliding off of the cliffs on which they're perched. In some photos, you can see wide cracks in the walls and ceilings, which the residents repeatedly try to fix, to no avail. When I returned to this area two weeks after my first visit, I found that many of these homes had been destroyed by the government. The shantytowns in Moqattam are technically illegal, and it's easier to destroy homes and force the people away than to address the underlying forces driving them into shantytowns. For now, I hope, forced relocation will do. At least it's action of some sort, which is more than the government is usually capable of.

Some of the residents have been given apartments in the Suzanne Mubarak Housing Project, less than a mile away, which sat empty—despite having approximately 10,000 apartments—for nearly a decade, thanks to rampant corruption among housing officials.

Some of the Duweiqa families whose homes have been destroyed by the government are now fending for themselves, as I learned during a phone call from my translator friend last night.