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Loving the Urban Poor in Cairo
By Rebecca Atallah
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Befriending and investing in the lives of those living in garbage
communities can lead to lasting and significant change.
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I have been involved for more than twenty-five years in a section of Cairo that is inhabited by garbage collectors, the most despised of all classes in Egypt. It has been thrilling to help the church there to improve the quality of its school and to better the economic and medical status of some of the more destitute families in this “garbage village.”
However, if I have accomplished anything of real value, it has been by befriending some of the garbage collectors and their families. It is not in the new programs I have started, or in the money I have helped to raise. These, of course, are very helpful for those in need; however, they are not the most important thing I have done. These things will not last to eternity, except as they have helped to change the attitudes and characters of the people involved, including me.
An Introduction into the Garbage Villages of Cairo
My experience began with a teenage boy standing at our door. He was so dirty I could hardly make out his features! Quite honestly, he wore clothes I wouldn't have even used as rags. The large, decrepit-looking basket slung over his shoulder was almost full of garbage; its weight had already caused him to be stoop-shouldered.
When my husband asked the young man in Arabic what he wanted, he explained that he was our trash boy and would be coming every day to collect our garbage. He actually wanted our garbage! This was my introduction to the garbage people of Cairo; through this boy, Salah, I learned quite a bit about these people.
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Rebecca Atallah ministers to the poor in the garbage villages of Cairo and to the Sudanese refugees living in the city. After growing up in Haiti as the daughter of missionaries, she immigrated to Montréal, Canada. She and her husband moved to Cairo twenty-eight years ago. |
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