By Barbara Palmer, UK, for Hope for MENA

I would love you to join us on a journey. It starts with 5 people crammed intoa tuktuk (motorised rickshaw). We bump around the narrow chaotic streets with vehicles of every description bringing garbage into the city.

There are even donkey drawn carts. The noise of car hooters blend with the homing pigeons, people chattering and pigs grunting as they play their part in recycling food waste.  

Everyone is busy sorting the rubbish with bare hands and doing their best to turn the rubbish into something useful. These coptic people work to keep the whole of Cairo clean. 

Children play together with the toys they have salvaged from the rubbish and the bigger ones look out for their younger siblings. Old and young sit together in the shade from the burning sun, street traders wait for business and a group of men are mixing concrete to repair one of the rough concrete blocks of flats which many families call home. Almost everyone greets us with a smile, in spite of their menial and despised work there is a sense of hope. 

We are invited to climb some very dark, narrow and uneven steps to a flat on the top floor. The elderly occupant leads the way to her one roomed home with no window.  She shares a bathroom with several others and cooks on a simple stove which she has to light.

A little girl takes my hand and drags me back down the dark stairs to her home. She lives in a similar one roomed flat with her parents and two siblings. Her mother shows us horrible burns and ask us to pray. As I take her hand I feel her amazing faith and feel prompted to anoint her with oil from the food parcel we took with us. 

Our visits continue and we find that illness and accident are a huge problem to this community because in spite of working very diligently they have no financial reserves and so if they are unable to work there is no money to pay the rent or to continue paying school fees, let alone pay for medicine. At each home a food parcel is appreciated and people ask us to pray in whatever language we call our mother tongue. We are hugged and humbled and glad to let these resilient people know that the world has not totally forgotten them. 

Our leader leads the way to a stunningly beautiful cave church which was built under the leadership of Fr Samaan, Beautiful Bible scenes and verses are carved into the rock. All speak of hope.

The space is shaded by the rock but still catches a breeze. The church seats 20,000 people and is just one of the places of worship in garbage city. At last we understand why these coptic people have hope. It is placed in God.

Our journey continues to a Christian foundation where women are trained to recycle textiles into beautiful woven and patchwork items and thus provide for their families. We visit a wonderfully appointed school which charges minimal fees to provide excellent education and therapy for children with disabilities and to train them in simple craft skills. The children greet us with huge smiles and join in our games.

As we walk away from garbage city we silently watch some children learning to ride the donkeys. Our hearts are full and some of the hope in garbage city has rubbed off onto us. 

How you can respond:

• Pray. The Coptic Christians have recently been attacked by terrorists. Pray for their safety and that their hope will endure.
• Give to to help feed a family in need. My goal is to be able to provide food parcels for 20 families by end of September, 2017.
• Join – click here to find out how you could join one of the Hope for MENA teams.