Engaged Designer, sensitive to the world around him, Xavier Degueldre is a man of conviction. "The shopping cart is the symbol of consumption of the occidental world. It was obvious for me to give back part of the profits of the sales of the Karts to sister Emmanuelle's association, ASMAE, with the hope to show the way toward a more balanced world".
Sister Emmanuelle (1908-2008.) was a religious Sister that became with the years the symbol of the very poor. In 1971 she witnessed the impoverished conditions of the trash collectors ( Zabbaleen community ) in Cairo, Egypt and decided to leave among them. She developed many health, education and welfare programs aiming at improving their conditions of life. For several generations, the Zabbaleen supported themselves by collecting trash door-to-door from the residents of Cairo for nearly no charge. Notably, the Zabbaleen recycle up to 80 percent of the waste that they collect, whereas most Western garbage collecting companies can only recycle 20 to 25 percent of the waste that they collect. By her involvement, Sister Emmanuelle gained the status of a media sensation in France and trough international networks.