South Asia’s Perfect Storm of Crises

By Send Relief Staff

For one country in South Asia, economic crises, the pandemic and natural disasters have created widespread chaos—especially in rural regions.

Families who were already struggling to keep food on the table have lost their main sources of income, plunging them deeper into poverty.

Then, monsoon season arrived, and floods began to wipe out entire villages.

85 people were killed in the storms, and tens of thousands fled their river-side communities. Seven districts were evacuated and, thankfully, several were in a region where Send Relief has mobilized local partners.

While there will be multiple phases of this response effort, the first phase helped feed nearly 3,000 flood survivors with non-perishables and dry goods. The second phase will involve repairing structural damage and rebuilding 120 houses that were completely destroyed in the storms.

The region is now also struggling to contain the rampant spread of COVID-19, but with so many displaced families moving from one district to the next, it is becoming more and more difficult to enforce precautionary measures. The nation as a whole already had over one million confirmed cases, but this evacuation sparked more than 1,000 new cases a day and nearly 60 COVID-19 related deaths—with numbers rising every day.

Many project leaders who were able to show practical care for these families through emergency food rations are now sharing Jesus with them in their heart language. In fact, three previously unreached areas were opened through this emergency response, and 20 of the 500 people who heard the gospel came to faith.

As the relief efforts continued, eight local churches became involved in different aspects of the food distributions and are now building meaningful relationships with those displaced by the floods.

Pray for survivors to find the resilience to rebuild their communities. Pray for children to find healing from the trauma they have witnessed and endured. Pray for disaster response teams to be intentional about working with both their hands and hearts, sharing the gospel as they provide practical care to these hurting families.

To help more communities like this recover from sudden disasters, give at sendrelief.org/give.


Published November 7, 2020

Send Relief Staff