A man who’s put in a lifetime to clean up the environment

This is the story of a man who has spent 23 years of his life on cleaning up the environmental waste. Javad Gharib – a man in Lorestan Province – returns to nature, literally, each day to handle the abandoned waste.

Mehr News Agency on July 26 published a report on Gharib – a retiree and a nature lover – and his routine over the past 23 years. The following is a brief translation of the report:

Every day in the early hours of morning, Javad sets out for nature – forests and mountains – on his moped and returns home late in the afternoon with a sackful of waste. This is a daily routine for Javad, a retired employee of a drugstore in Borujerd and a nature lover.

He’s been appreciated by the agencies involved in environmental affairs, and the [thank-you] cards he carries in his pocket prove that he has been given credit for his labor of love. Still, those cards are not enough to show Javad Gharib’s genuine efforts [and pure love for Mother Nature and its cleanliness].

Javad puts it simply: that nature is a [divine] blessing, but man is not grateful enough for his blessings; that the environment has a right [to healthy existence] and its right should be respected.

Javad asks all people to help the environment and do their share of protecting the environment. He reminds people that when they head for nature, they should not forget one thing: they are expected not to disturb the calm of the environment in return for the serenity they find in the environment.