Franciscan missionaries are asking for COVID relief in India! We all watch the plight of the Indian people on the evening news as their country suffers a new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic! We have seen images of patients lying on the floors of hospitals and ambulances lined up in front of hospital emergency rooms or backed up outside the entrances to crematoriums. There has been coverage of the international delivery of emergency supplies of oxygen and sheet steel to make oxygen tanks.

India has never been a rich country. According to a recent study by Azim Premji University in Bangalore, about 230 million more people fell below the poverty level due to the shutdown caused by the first wave of COVID. Now these same families are facing the second wave of the pandemic and another shutdown! They are unable to buy food to feed their families. Father Praveen D’Souza, OFM and Father Rajasekhar Gopu, OFM, from the Province of Saint Thomas the Apostle in Bangalore, India, have requested an emergency grant of $83,344. With a gift of hope and mercy the missionary friars will help 1,500 poor families with infected family members survive this second wave over the next three months. That is only $18.52 to help one family for one month!

Your Gift of Hope and Mercy

The families will receive an emergency food supply consisting of rice, lentils, sugar, and oil. They will also receive a medical kit with basic medicines for treating COVID patients at home, vitamin supplements, a thermometer, a steam inhaler, sanitizer, KN95 masks, and waste disposal bags. Right now, only God knows how many people have died from the new COVID-19 wave in India. We know that 32 of our friars in India have contracted the virus and 2 have died.

Your gift of hope and mercy has never been needed more than now for these sisters and brothers. You can bring them hope. You can show them mercy! Could you offer a special gift to help Father Praveen, Father Raja, and our other Franciscan missionaries ease the suffering caused by this second COVID wave? I do have some good news to share! A special friend believes so strongly in providing this relief to suffering poor families that she offered to match YOUR generosity dollar for dollar!

How Your Donation Can Help with India COVID Relief

Think about this. Pray about this one need. We only need to raise $41,667 which will be matched to provide India COVID relief to 1,500 poor families. We can accomplish so much together, if only you will give generously today and have your gift DOUBLED by our dear friend. Your gift of $10 would be $20 towards helping a poor family with an infected family member! A gift of $50 would be $100! A $100 gift would be $200! We can do this together! It is not an unattainable sum of money to help 1,500 families.

On their behalf, I am praying and striving to raise $41,667 that will be matched by another $41,667 so that we can send Father Praveen and Father Raja the emergency funds they requested. We can do this “if only” you will help. Any gift you send will be a blessing and any gift you send will double! Please send a merciful gift today to provide emergency food and medicine to a poor Indian family affected by this second wave of COVID-19. Your generosity is the image of God’s mercy and reflects the face of Christ to the poor!

God bless and reward you for the great charity and kindness of your heart.

Sincerely,

Brother Andrew Brophy, OFM

Executive Director

P.S. Please help the people of India find hope as they struggle to survive this second wave of  COVID-19. Help them renew their faith in everlasting life for loved ones they may have lost. We know that waves of this pandemic can occur anywhere and at any time in our world. In the developed nations, we have hope now that many of us have been vaccinated. But many of the poor in the missions will have to wait a long time for a vaccine to reach them. Please pray for them. Know that you are in the prayers of all our Franciscan missionaries each day.

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