Dramatic words from the desperate Christian and family father in the face of the emergency situation – what happened?
16. August 2023: Inciters from a fundmentalist party and local Islamic leaders stir up young Muslims. Around 7,000 men then stormed the Christian quarter of the city of Jaranwala. The mob destroyed houses and desecrated the Christian cemetery. Kashif’s house was destroyed, he was left without a job, without possessions, without money, without hope. How were the children to be fed?
Father Riaz from the Christians in Need project parish in Feroza took the family in and gave them their first shelter. In Feroza they can start a new life in safety. But they needed help to get started, because the mob had taken everything from them. Kashif and his wife Zeenat immediately went back to work. They were allowed to help out in the fields as cotton pickers. They were paid the pittance of 250 PKR per day (0.90 USD). And only as long as it was harvest time. This was far too little to keep the family of six alive. It was never enough to pay for the basic necessities for a new life.
The greatest wish:
To work as a transport driver again! The mulim landlord had also taken away Kashif’s rickshaw. In the parish he can only earn something as a casual laborer in wage bondage, a permanent job is out of reach.
There is no future for a trained driver – unless he can go back to running errands. But that is only possible with a rickshaw. The cost is 500,000 rupees, around USD 1,800. With his rickshaw, Kashif can create a future for his family, rent an apartment and pay school fees and books for his children. He only needed this small start-up funding so that he could stand on his own two feet again. Kashif proudly gathers his family around him and thanks the donors (picture above).
