Pakistan catastrophe
One year after the lives and livelihoods of many Pakistani Christians were devastated by surging floods, once more they find themselves in grievous distress as large swathes of the country are again under deep water.
Up to 6 million people, mainly in the province of Sindh, are caught up in the disastrous floods. Many of them were only just recovering from last year’s catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of homes and millions of acres of crops have been swept away.
Thousands of people are in emergency camps, where facilities are often desperately inadequate. Many more are camped in appalling conditions by roadsides. They are in acute danger from diseases such as malaria, dysentery and dengue fever, and millions of helpless children are threatened with diarrhoea.
In some parts, the floods are worse than those of 2010, where there has been as much rainfall in a few days as in the entire monsoon season. The rains are the worst for 100 years, and more are expected for several weeks.
Amid all this chaos and anguish, our Christian brothers and sisters suffer all the more. Already very poor, the loss of their homes and livelihoods leaves them with no means of support or survival. And they are all too often overlooked in the distribution of aid. Their most urgent need is for food, clean water and hygiene.
Barnabas Fund
