Salesians Aid More Than 1,200 Victims of Pakistan Floods

Salesians Aid More Than 1,200 Victims of Pakistan Floods

A large, multifaceted international effort

(ANS – Lahore, Pakistan – November 18, 2022) – Pakistan is still counting the victims and adding up the damage from the monsoon rains that killed more than 1,500 people in late August, leaving at least half a million Pakistanis homeless and one-third of the country underwater; lakes hundreds of miles long and dozens wide were formed. More than one million homes and about 2,000 miles of roads were damaged or destroyed. More than one million animals were killed, crops wiped out. The government said a total of more than 33 million people were affected and quantified the damage as at least $10 billion.

The Salesians responded immediately to the emergency, giving themselves and asking for outside help to increase opportunities to help those in need. For example, Salesian coadjutor Bro. Piero Ramello, a native of the Piedmont Province who has been a missionary in Pakistan since 2020, immediately contacted Turin’s Missioni Don Bosco, which took immediate action, ensuring that the needy in Pakistan would receive initial help thru its emergency fund.

Bro. Ramello reports gratefully: “With the funds received from Missioni Don Bosco, from Misiones Salesianas of Madrid, from the Salesian Mission Office of South Korea, and from Switzerland, we won’t be able exactly to support all the families who have asked for help and who were included in the ‘Flood emergency in Sindh and Punjab’ project, but a good part of them, yes!”

He continues: “Between Jacobabad, Sukkar, and Shakarput, we’re reaching 100 families with a total of 720 people, including many children and adolescents. In the city of Sukkar, the money has been delivered to the parish priest and the distribution has been taken care of directly by the parish; in Jacobabad and Shakarput the distribution is taken care of directly by the Salesians in Lahore who, with the help of some past pupils and older boys from the boarding school, are in charge of delivering the material, avoiding gatherings, and trying to make the recipients comfortable.”

The materials distributed consist of food (flour, rice, lentils, oil), camp tents, mosquito repellent tents, personal hygiene supplies, and medicine (especially medicines for the prevention and treatment of cholera and dengue fever).

A similar project, supported by funding from Germany’s Don Bosco Mission Bonn, is being led by the Salesians in Quetta for the Beluchistan Province.

“Through these two initiatives, the Salesians in Pakistan are bringing relief to more than 1,200 people,” Bro. Ramello concluded.

And now, with the first intervention initiatives over, Missioni Don Bosco is working to continue to stand by the people.

Read more at: www.missionidonbosco.org