Before starting the project, eL Seed visited the slum, “showed his face around,” and sought the blessing of the area’s religious leader Rev. Father Samaan Ibrahim. “We got the blessing of the priest so everyone welcomed us,” he explains. The area’s 15,000-seat Saint Sama’ans Church (also referred to as the ”cave church”) where Rev. Ibrahim ministers to the largely Coptic Orthodox population is the among the biggest churches in the Middle East.

Image for article titled This incredible 50-building-wide street art honors Cairo’s trash pickers
Image: eL Seed

Since he unveiled the finished painting on Instagram two weeks ago, eL Seed’s masterpiece has been celebrated by street art fans worldwide, with photos of the mural circulating on social media. The residents have been moved by a project that has brought color and attention to the forsaken part of the city. They did hope that eL Seed and his crew could paint more buildings, the New York Times reported.

eL Seed said that the art project was perhaps just an excuse for human encounter. His most memorable takeaway was a lesson in generosity: “I was most impressed with the way they educate their kids,” he says. “When you first offer them a piece of chocolate they refuse it because they’ve been taught that others might need it more than they do.”

Image for article titled This incredible 50-building-wide street art honors Cairo’s trash pickers

Correction: The title of eL Seed’s piece is “Perception” and not “Perspective,” as previously noted.

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