(as of 1996)
There is a destitute corner of a North African city where some 20,000 people live. They are the poorest of the poor, surviving by gathering the city's garbage, recycling much of it and feeding discarded food scraps to their livestock.
In this bleak village Rebecca (Becky) Atallah finds her greatest joy; it is teh joy of working with the poor, bringing hope to the hopeless and Christ to the Christless.
Using her medical social work training, Becky visits village women to teach them basic health care. She also works at a Christian school in the village, taking children on trips outside of the village. "It's the only time they get to see clean sand, flowers, trees and bushes." Becky is no stranger to poverty, having grown up in Haiti, the Western world's poorest country, where her parents were missionaries. Later, while on InterVarsity-Canada staff, she was very involved with an inner-city church in Montreal, ministering to Haitian immigrants.
Becky has lived in North Africa for the last fifteen years with her husband Ramez and their children.