In 2020, you provided crucial support to poor communities in great need through the Mill Hill Missionaries. Fr Richard MHM (pictured) lives and ministers in Pakistan. He shared with us news of the difficulties faced by his community in 2020 and how Missio supporters helped to change the situation with crucial support and prayers.
A bleak situation
‘The cost of living in the country has skyrocketed, with many people drifting deeper into poverty,’ Fr Richard told us earlier in 2020. ‘With the pandemic, things are getting worse. If the virus will not kill us, surely hunger will.
‘Many projects were rolled out to provide rations to vulnerable and needy people, but most Christian families were ignored. The Church remained the only hope… but with no income due to closed churches, many families were starving, and many were taking risks to look for food’.
But you were there to help
When Fr Richard received support from you, via the Missio COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, he wrote:
‘There could not have been a better time to get support. Food aid was provided to the starving and most vulnerable people in three parishes run by the Mill Hill Missionaries. Six hundred vulnerable families benefitted from basic food supplies that could allow them to survive for two weeks’.
In April 2020, Pope Francis set up an Emergency Fund through Missio, to help missionaries and young and poor churches through the COVID-19 crisis. Missio supporters in England and Wales raised £382,000, the majority of which was urgently distributed to 13 countries to help those in greatest need across the world.
With your support through the Red Box, the Mill Hill Missionaries have continued to ‘go where the need is greatest’. You can donate today here>>
Mill Hill Missionaries and Missio in Pakistan
Mill Hill Missionaries in Pakistan are involved in interfaith dialogue; they also minister to terminally ill people and those suffering from drug addiction. Three parish teams are responsible for the pastoral care of desperately poor indigenous families in hundreds of villages where the dominant culture puts pressure on their fragile faith.
Fr Richard tells us:
‘During the pandemic, Christians have been the most affected. The majority work as sanitation workers, as domestic workers, running small-scale business stalls selling vegetables, and as hard labourers in the industries, earning daily wages which are barely enough to meet the family’s needs for the day. Lockdown has meant that they could not work and have no means to take care of their families.
The Mill Hill Missionaries would like to thank Missio England and Wales for the support they have offered to the communities we serve, through the Pope’s Emergency Appeal’.
Your support is vital
Last year was an exceptionally tough year for all of us. But because of you, more families in places like Pakistan are making it through the pandemic. We could not reach them without your help. Please help us continue to reach people in need by giving to the Red Box here>>