First we would like to provide you with first information from our partner countries and invite you to pray for them:

In India partners such as Tony Yeguri have started to educate the population about hygiene measures and have distributed flyers informing about COVID-19. Meanwhile there are curfews and travel bans in India. Pastor Samarpana Kumar, leader of “Jesus Loves Ministries”, is currently stuck in the extremely poor and remote area of Chhattisgarh where he regularly offers help to the poorest ethnic groups. He also uses the situation to educate the people there about the disease. The children’s homes of our partners have also had to be closed which is dramatic because this also affects many orphans who cannot be accommodated anywhere else.

There is also a curfew in South Africa. Also affected are 60 people who are still housed in the Mamelodi West Baptist Church. They had lost their homes in floods in December. Pastor Thembelani Jentile and his congregation continue to care for the needy and the hardships of people in the neighbourhood. They are pushing their strength to the limit. Our missionary Regina Claas is in domestic quarantine and fears that the curfew will increase violence in families and on the streets.

The problem in many African countries is that there are hardly any testing possibilities there. In Cameroon for example there is only one contact point for the whole country where people can be tested for Corona. One must assume that many have already died without having been tested. Some of our partners are already giving prevention courses in hygiene measures, like Karin Schwarz on the Balaka farm in Malawi.

In Turkey, a curfew has been imposed on the over 65 year olds. All others are allowed to move around more freely. The pastoral couple Petrina and Sükrü are very worried about the refugee camp in Adana with 90,000 refugees who live closely together in poor hygienic conditions and inadequate medical care. If the Corona virus were to break out there it would have fatal consequences.

In Argentina the Corona virus is not the only problem as the country also has to deal with the Dengue fever. In the Diadema social center in Brazil as well as in other social centers the staff members continue to try to help the children and their families in a decentralized manner as much as possible since the facilities there are also temporarily closed.

We are happy that our partners remain capable of acting in these times of need and thank God for His protection in so many places.

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Remain faithfully united to us in prayer and giving: Only through your donations can we maintain the good work that must continue in many places even in times of crisis. You can find all donation information here.

Your team from EBM INTERNATIONAL