BWA NEWS IN BRIEF


PAKISTAN
BAPTISTS SEND AID
A total of US$50,000 was granted by Baptist World Aid (BWAid), the relief development arm of the Baptist
World Alliance (BWA), to assist flood victims in Pakistan.
The funds, which were used to meet medical, food and shelter needs, were disbursed through BMS World
Mission, the major British Baptist mission organization, and Canadian Baptist Ministries.
In addition, two volunteers from BWAid Rescue24, a first responder service operated by BWAid, took
several thousand dollars worth of aid to the areas of Pakistan most severely damaged by the floods. The
volunteers, Sher Alam Khan, a Hungarian medical doctor of Pakistani origin, and Lajos Herencsár, a security
expert and former diplomat from Hungary, worked among survivors and treated patients for one week. The aid
consisting of medicines, blankets and water purification tablets was distributed in Swat Valley and Vasiristan.
“The flood brings more and more trash, plastic bags, and other things, which are dangling on the trees
that look like horrid Christmas trees,” said Herencsár. “People starve and thirst in unthinkable circumstances.”
Herencsár stated that widespread food shortage caused by devastation of crops and harvests is highly
possible.
“The Baptist World Alliance is deeply moved by the level of suffering of the Pakistani people at this time,”
said Paul Montacute, director of BWAid. “We ask all Baptists to remember the country and people of Pakistan
in their prayers and offer practical expressions of help.”
BWAid has received close to US$100,000 and is exploring the best means by which to disburse the funds.
There are only a few independent Baptist churches in Pakistan and there are no known organized Baptist
conventions or unions in the Muslim-majority country.
Baptist conventions, unions, mission organizations, churches, and individuals extended assistance to
Pakistan. Direct donations to the BWA came from the Union of Evangelical Free Churches in Germany, the
North American Baptist Conference, and the Central Baptist Church of Bearden, Tennessee, in the United
States, among other donors. The Malaysia Baptist Convention and other Asian Baptist unions sent funds
through the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation (APBF).
Canadian Baptist Ministries worked through an NGO to offer assistance to 8,000 families or approximately
64,000 persons mainly in Nowshehra and Charsadda in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. BMS World Mission
donated funds to assist approximately 500 families in the Sindh region of North West Pakistan.
Several thousand persons have died as a result of the flood and from water borne diseases. Some 20
million have been affected by the widespread flooding that has stricken Pakistan since July. The deluge has
covered an area estimated at 160,000 square kilometers or 61,800 square miles, damaging or destroying close
to one million homes and devastating livestock and vast acreages of farmland.


Scenes of devastation of the Pakistan fl ood captured by the Baptist World Aid Rescue24 team who visited the country shortly after the disaster struck. Picture inserts show BWAid Rescue24 team members handing out relief supplies and conducting medical tests

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