BMS World Mission Coronavirus appeal:
What you achieved this year
Back in March of this year, BMS World Mission launched our Coronavirus appeal, and thousands of UK Christians responded generously to the urgent need. In a world thrown into chaos by a virus whose unpredictable course left many feeling shaken and confused, it was hard to know where to help first. Saving lives required decisive action, which you knew as well as we did. And so, with your help, we stepped in to make a difference everywhere we could…
From Peru to Nepal, Afghanistan to Mozambique, your donations reached right around the globe, directly helping people in 14 countries across four continents. That amounted to over 28,000 people whose lives were sustained, protected and transformed through a heartfelt response from generous UK Christians. Whether it was picking up the phone, posting in a cheque, starting a fundraiser, or donating through our website, those simple actions have raised over £230,000, an absolutely amazing total that will have a long-lasting and life-saving effect for so many around the world.
Coronavirus hasn’t just endangered the health of those who contracted it, but countrywide lockdowns have also threatened to destroy the livelihoods of many people around the world who rely on subsistence farming or daily wage labour to survive. In such a large-scale crisis, your gifts were able to stretch far and wide because BMS was at the forefront of co-ordinating the global Baptist response to the Covid-19 Coronavirus.
By working with the Baptist World Alliance Forum for Aid and Development (BFAD), we ensured that your gifts delivered a multi-faceted response, whether that was supporting the making of over 31,000 masks in Mozambique, responding to the mental health crisis caused by Covid-19 in Afghanistan, providing emergency food rations to those trapped in desperate hunger due to lockdown in Sri Lanka, or getting PPE to hospitals in Nepal and Chad.
Sign up to get the next issue of Engage, and receive our special ‘Coronavirus heroes’ issue. Hear from people like Gloria, who went from losing everything to being part of the team sewing over 30,000 face masks for a hospital in Mozambique!
This co-ordinated response meant that we handed out more relief grants in 2020 than ever before, and that you were able to help people who hadn’t received aid from anyone else. People like Athilatchumi. Her livelihood collapsed during Sri Lanka’s strict lockdown when her daughter’s job in a local factory was put on pause, and her husband couldn’t sell the produce he caught from his work as a fisherman. As she told our partner in Sri Lanka, “We haven’t received such support from anyone else during this crisis”.
What might have happened to Athilatchumi, her husband and five children without your intervention doesn’t bear thinking about. But luckily, we don’t have to. Athilatchumi and 28,000 others are safe and well thanks to your giving, whether they be workers who lost jobs, people going through mental health crises, those who needed ongoing medical treatment — or drastic intervention after contracting Coronavirus — or key workers who needed protection and support.
By choosing to give to the BMS Coronavirus appeal, you’ve played a crucial part in saving thousands of lives across the world. Thank you for standing with your neighbours wherever they are found, and making a difference in this time of crisis.
Spread the word!
We at BMS are convinced that this is such good news – for people around the world who experienced God’s love in action through your witness, and for those of you in the UK who gave. We’d love for you to share this Coronavirus appeal update with your church. Why not download the Coronavirus thank you video and keyworker thank you video on this page to play in your service and truly thank your congregation for all they did — whether you’re meeting online, or in person.
Words by Hannah Watson.
Videos by Joshua Mutton and Laura Durrant.
