mohamed khamis: it's clear the project is bigger than we could have i igined. it's hard to c comprehend the dimensionsns of this place. reporter: it's everything the old capital city is not. home to nearly 20 million inhabitants, cairo is bursting at the seams. it has gigantic traffic jams, smog, chaos, and infrastructure ththere is crumbling. not to mention the high unemployment. millions of people without hope live in the grimy megacity. karim fathy is one of them. to live, he collects plastic bottles at this garbage dump. the 28-year-old earns about three euros a day, just barely enough to survive. karim: o of course this work ist good for my health. but who else is supposed to feed my family? i hahave to do somethihing. reporter: : karim lives in ezbt khair allah, a slum in the middle of cairo. they call the quarter the people's republic of china because it's hopelessly overpopulated and dilapidated. houses here are practically all in need of repair. the sewage system doesn't work right, and the air is polluted. fathy pays 20 euros a month here for two room

and the new capital with all its prestigious mega projects may earn investors like mohamed khamis fantastic returns but will it also benefit cairo's poorest residents in the long term. i don't think that there are apartments for people on a limited budget here in the new capital. but we are helping these people by rebuilding their houses they don't like to move out of the neighborhoods where they live and grow up you. and see that with us in iraq. mohamed would certainly rather have stayed in the inner city minor renovation work in his old home would have been enough for him but the government wants to tear down and rebuild and many people will end up paying a price for it. around a billion people donate their time to volunteer work organizations like the red cross and greenpeace would be lost without it volunteers are also indispensable when it comes to rebuilding regions in the wake of natural disasters. a year ago hurricane maria devastated the small island of. volunteers from around the world to helping heal the wounds. it said that if christopher columbus were to return to the caribbea