Covid-19: Thank you for saving lives

Covid-19:

Thank you for saving lives

You have helped more than 36,000 people in 24 countries across the globe. And you’re making a difference right now.

Yemen. Afghanistan. Chad. Nigeria. South Sudan. Bangladesh. Ghana. Mozambique. These are some of the least developed countries in the world. These are some of the places where your gifts to the BMS World Mission Coronavirus appeal are making a huge difference.

Coronavirus global response: you helped more than 36,000 people

You are part of a global effort to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19 continues to threaten livelihoods, push people further into poverty, and disproportionately impact our world’s most vulnerable communities. While the pandemic rages on, BMS will continue to respond. And we can only do that because of you.

Key facts: your response so far
  • You’ve helped more than 36,000 people in 24 countries across four continents
  • You donated more than £288,000 to the global Baptist response
  • You enabled BMS to give 30 relief grants so far, in our most complex and wide-reaching relief effort ever

How you have made a difference

  • You’ve provided Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontline workers, given emergency food supplies, provided soap and handwashing guidance, helped to build a satellite Coronavirus hospital, provided phone credit to pastors to reach their congregations, counselled patients and frontline workers… and more! And you’re still helping right now in some of the world’s most fragile communities

Right now, you’re part of co-ordinated responses in Lebanon, Greece, Turkey, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Yemen, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Chad. You’re providing food parcels, hygiene supplies, face masks and medical support. You’re standing with refugee communities and displaced people who lack the basic resources they need to survive this pandemic. And you’re also helping people in South America get back on their feet by providing small grants and training for people to re-start and strengthen businesses.

The food parcel you provided for Mashura was an absolute lifeline for her whole family.

Mashura lives with her husband and three children in a small one-room house in the Satkhira District of Bangladesh. This is her story, in her own words.

“Before this pandemic, our family was doing well. I used to support my family by raising cattle and chicken. Recently, we are in a crisis of food scarcity due to this Covid-19 pandemic. Earnings are completely cut-off due to the lockdown.

“I had to sell everything because of the Coronavirus outbreak. My husband lost his work and there was not enough food for everyone. We needed help so much and we were waiting for help from someone. We prayed to God to help us.

“When this situation was going on, we heard about the [BMS-supported] project providing food items for many people in need. Thanks to the infinite grace of God, I was also included in the list of food distribution. In such a situation, after receiving this food package, my family’s food needs have been met. There is no need to go to the market with risk. Me and my family have benefited a lot.

“I would like to thank the concerned donors for their help with food during this pandemic.”

A Bangladeshi woman receives aid from BMS' Coronavirus appeal
Thanks to your support Mashura was able to feed her family.
You've provided so much across the world in response to the coronavirus pandemic

By sacrificially supporting BMS in this time of global crisis, you have partnered with Baptist organisations across the world to help where it was and is needed most.

Some of the things you made possible this year include:

  • Providing food and soap for 1,200 people in Uganda, who were not only facing the threat of Coronavirus but were also affected by flash floods.
  • Empowering 8,770 children and teachers in Mozambique to help stop the spread of Covid-19 through the provision of soap and handwashing lessons.
  • Ensuring medical workers in Nepal and Chad had the PPE and face masks they needed to tackle Coronavirus in their hospitals.
  • Providing 2,604 people in Peru with vital food parcels.
  • And so much more!
Coronavirus response in Bangladesh
From Bangladesh to Peru, Uganda to the Philippines, you've made a huge difference across the world by supporting our Coronavirus appeal.

Thank you for saving lives across the world during this pandemic. And thank you for enabling us to continue responding to the needs our partners are sharing with us. You really are still making a difference.

Read in-depth stories of the way your gifts to the BMS Coronavirus appeal saved lives in Afghanistan and empowered women in Mozambique on pages 8 to 11 of Engage, Issue 48.

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Top 5 stories of 2019

Top 5 stories of 2019

Supporting this

Your support for BMS World Mission made amazing things happen in 2019. We’ve selected some of our favourite stories of God’s work from this year to show you the powerful things your prayers and giving have achieved. Here’s to God doing incredible things in 2020!

1. Serving in the Sahel

Head and shoulders photo of Claire Bedford

We caught up with the wonderful Claire Bedford, a BMS pharmacist serving at Guinebor II hospital in Chad, to get the low-down on what’s been going on behind the scenes at this busy BMS hospital. Claire shared how things have changed since she moved to Chad in 2016, and some amazing answers to prayer!

Catch up with Claire!

2. Pictures from the frontline: South Sudan’s Refugees in Photos

A South Sudanese farmer stands in the field of corn that he grew using seeds provided by BMS supporters.

These beautiful photos from behind the scenes of our South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors appeal show how your support is empowering South Sudanese refugees to help each other in the wake of a devastating civil war. It’s not too late to stand alongside these incredible people. You can donate today or hold a South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors service.

See the photos

3. The Good Zacchaeus

A woman standing in front of a hut

You wouldn’t expect a mission worker to take money from her neighbours, but BMS worker Laura-Lee Lovering does. Read this story to find out why, and why her local community of La Union, Peru is all the better for it.

Read the story

4. Where Christians dare to tread

A man sat cross-legged in front of a map of Bangladesh and holding a Bible.

“I ask the Holy Spirit to lead me to places where no-one knows of God, and those places get transformed by him.”

Pastor Simon* knows his calling. He delivers messages of Christian hope to those in Muslim communities in Bangladesh – despite the dangers presented by religious extremist groups. Read the full story and find out everything you need to know about Pastor Simon’s incredible faith.

*Name changed.

Be inspired by Pastor Simon

5. Are you sitting comfortably?

We couldn’t round off 2019 without mentioning legendary BMS church planter Ben Francis! We were lucky enough to film him sharing the step by step journey of a believer from ‘seeker’ to ‘disciple maker’ earlier this year. Watch it now and be inspired to share your faith.

Read the story
Even more powerful stories from 2019
  1. The Reel Deal – check out the beautiful photos from our talented cohort of 2018/19 Action Teamers!
  2. Cyclone Idai: Mozambique needs your prayer – we asked you to pray for Mozambique after the devastating cyclones last March – and your response was overwhelming. Thank you!
  3. New Director for Mission appointed – we were blessed to be able to appoint Rev Dr Arthur Brown as our new Director for Mission this year.
  4. The Girl Who Was Hiding – children who can’t see are being empowered in D R Congo thanks to foundations laid by BMS workers.
  5. Breaking Cultural Captivity: How to Mission – at our How to Mission event in July, we learnt from World Church leaders how to conduct God’s mission in our local contexts.

All of this work has been made possible thanks to your prayers and giving. Without your support, we would have nothing to write about! And we wouldn’t be able to share God’s love across the world. If you want to help us continue to do God’s work in 2020, please sign up to be a 24:7 Partner today! It’s the best way to make sure we can be there for the most marginalised when they need it most.

Want to do even more amazing things? Give today
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Words by Laura Durrant.

Tech for mission

Tech for mission:

how cutting-edge tech is transforming lives

Supporting this

You heard it here first. BMS World Mission is harnessing the powers of science and faith to transform mission, thanks to your giving.

Technology is transforming mission. Evangelists are using social media to reach those who want to know Jesus in places where it’s too dangerous to ask about faith. Scientific advances and faithful BMS supporters are improving antenatal care for South Sudanese women in Uganda. What if science and faith were not arch-enemies but actually long-lost friends?

Your faithful prayers and generous giving are supporting BMS in bringing science and faith together across the world to transform lives. Bidi Bidi refugee camp, Uganda, now a settlement the size of Birmingham with over a quarter of a million people, is one of those places.

A woman sitting in a plastic chair with her baby in Bidi Bidi refugee camp, Uganda.
Aya Joska arrived in Bidi Bidi refugee camp fighting for a future for her and her unborn baby.

South Sudanese refugees have fled a terrifying and brutal civil war, with hundreds of thousands arriving at Bidi Bidi camp. Aya Joska is one of the conflict survivors living there. She was pregnant when she ran from men armed with guns and machetes, escaping with the clothes on her back and her unborn baby.

Arriving at a refugee camp may have meant safety for some, but it wasn’t total security for Aya. With 99 per cent of maternal deaths occurring in low-income areas, the odds were overwhelmingly against her. “As a pregnant woman, you’re literally hundreds of times more likely to die from conditions such as pre-eclampsia, infections and haemorrhages in low-income countries,” says Dr Andrew Shennan, Professor of Obstetrics at King’s College London. “Often, it’s not because of a lack of sophisticated treatment, but because, in places like the UK, vital signs are regularly checked, and symptoms are discovered early on.”

A blood pressure monitor called the Cradle Device being used in Bidi Bidi camp.
Bidi Bidi camp needed an early detector that could be used by untrained people, that’s easy to use and understand.
A man with a blood pressure monitor smiling at the camera from an ante-natal care room.
A key component to antenatal care in the UK is to be seen regularly and have your blood pressure checked.

That’s where technology stepped in. Dr Shennan spent the best part of a decade developing a highly accurate, easy-to-use blood pressure monitor called the Cradle Device. Not only does it measure blood pressure, but it also identifies symptoms. It tells the user if action needs to be taken using a simple traffic light system. If a woman’s vital signs trigger a red light, then health work volunteers can get her to hospital as soon as possible. “By detecting these conditions earlier, than you can prevent the mother from dying,” says Dr Shennan. “Her other children are 50 per cent more likely to die if she dies.” So when you protect the mother, you’re also protecting her children.

The Cradle Device is relatively cheap and charges with a simple micro-USB charger which most people use to charge their phones and, cleverly, it also can be plugged into a solar or car battery. It’s a device perfectly suited to refugee situations. And your support for BMS has delivered 700 of these Cradle Devices to go into UNHCR camps in Uganda. Thanks to your prayers and giving now 7,000 women are having their blood pressure checked regularly by health work volunteers. It’s a life-saving measure for mothers and their unborn babies.

A baby sleeping wrapped up in cloths in the arms of her mother.
With the power of technology, Aya was given the antenatal care she needed to give birth to her beautiful baby, Blessing.
Keep supporting tech for mission Give today
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And there’s more exciting news ahead for BMS’ South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors appeal. We’re exploring ways to help displaced people within South Sudan. So look out for an update soon! Right now, though, please consider taking a special offering in your church or making a donation now. Why not join churches across the country on 20 October, 27 October and 19 January who will be gathering to take a special offering as part of Survivor Sundays? Your giving won’t just help South Sudan’s conflict survivors. You’ll be helping to share the fullness of life in Christ among the powerless and poor, with those who never had a chance to hear Jesus’ name, all over the world.

#TECH FOR MISSION

There are even more ways that technology is being used for mission at BMS. In the next Engage magazine you’ll learn how social media is being used in evangelism. Live streaming platforms are being used to reach out to people in places where it’s too dangerous to ask about Jesus. You heard it here first, so watch this space.

BMS has always pioneered in mission. And technology is just one of the exciting tools we use to pioneer today.

Words by Melanie Webb. 

Pictures from the frontline: South Sudan’s refugees in photos

This is the South Sudanese refugee crisis. These are the people who survived the civil war in South Sudan. They’re helping each other, but they need you to stand alongside them.

Supporting this

He was crawling. And when David Dunham met him, Modi Emmanuel wouldn’t shake his hand without wiping the dust off first. Modi’s story is not unusual.

In November 2018, a team from BMS World Mission visited three refugee camps in Uganda to film South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors. David was part of that team. These are his photographs.

Modi Emmanuel, a South Sudanese refugee, kneels on the ground in the Paloyrina refugee camp.
"It's hard to understand the reality and depth of the need in the refugee camps until you see it firsthand. We must respond."

“When I met Modi, he wasn’t in his wheelchair. He was on his hands and knees.

This young man who has suffered so much was so thoughtful and so conscious of the dust on his hands that he refused to shake hands until his were clean.”

South Sudanese children sit in a make-shift church in this refugee camp.

“Not every child who flees war makes it to a refugee camp. Many of those that do arrive alone having witnessed the death of a loved one or companion on the journey.”

South Sudanese people in refugee settlements are already helping each other. Will you stand with them?

A South Sudanese pastor high-fives children in a refugee camp in Uganda.

“Patrick has been a refugee three times. He’s been arrested for no reason. Imprisoned in a shipping container. Lost every possession. And now he’s helping other refugees, like these children.”

Click here to help South Sudanese refugees
A South Sudanese farmer stands in the field of corn that he grew using seeds provided by BMS supporters.

“Dube fled his home with his three young children. He lost everything he owned. A friend allowed him to use a field to grow crops, and the seeds he planted came from UK Christians, acting through BMS World Mission.”

Since the civil war in South Sudan began in 2013, 4.3 million people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands of people have died. Most of the refugees are women and children, who have walked hundreds of miles to find safety in neighbouring countries like Uganda. Disease and malnourishment mean hundreds of thousands of people are still at risk. And you can help them.

Give today and hold a South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors service at your church. Find all the resources you’ll need here.

“The people living in these refugee settlements are probably some of the most courageous and beautiful I’ve ever met,” says David. Thank you for helping South Sudan’s conflict survivors.

Support South Sudan's Conflict Survivors Click here
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Words and interview by Laura Durrant

Humans of South Sudan

Humans of South Sudan

Supporting this
How can I help South Sudanese refugees?

There are still more South Sudanese refugees who need your help. You can help refugees from South Sudan by showing South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors in your church or by giving today.

Thank you for your prayers and giving which are already making a difference.

The people you’ll meet in this story have survived the conflict in South Sudan. Now in refugee camps, they’re still in danger from disease and starvation. And there are thousands more like them.

Susan

A woman in a wheelchair outside a shack made out of straw.
Susan's joy is amazing. She lives an isolated life, yet her faith is unwavering.

After driving through shrubbery, we abandon the car and walk for almost an hour. We fight through the grass and branches as we head further away from civilisation. I am about a mile from the border with South Sudan. Surely no-one can be living here.

But I am amazed to find a hut, providing barely any protection from the rain. And inside, a solitary woman. Susan.

Susan has leprosy and her hands are beginning to curl in on themselves. I ask her how she ended up here. “I was chased by the government and the rebels,” she says. “I am not able to walk, so I started crawling. I never made it to the camps.”

Because Susan hasn’t made it to an official settlement to register as a refugee, she’s not eligible for UN food relief. You’ve been providing her with emergency food rations – support that has most likely saved her life.

Click here to watch South Sudan's Conflict Survivors

South Sudan's Conflict Survivors DVD featuring a group of boys high-fiving

You’ve also helped train the pastoral activists who found Susan. “I don’t get many visitors here. The team share the word of God with me, and they pray with me. That is how I get my strength.” As I walk away, I know we’re leaving her lonely, but never alone.

Joice

Family: Mother of four children, including five-month-old twins, Sarah and Sharon.

Location: Bidi Bidi, the world’s largest refugee camp with a quarter of a million South Sudanese refugees.

Condition: Suffered from edema and pre-eclampsia while pregnant with her twins. Untreated, these conditions can be fatal.

How you helped: Joice’s conditions were detected because you paid for a highly accurate blood pressure monitor to be given to a volunteer health worker in Joice’s community. The volunteer found out Joice had dangerously high blood pressure. He kept monitoring her throughout her pregnancy, and at eight months she was given a C-section which was vital for her survival.

What Joice says: “Without this device, I was going to face death. I am giving you thanks. I am now okay, and my children are okay.”

A South Sudanese mother hugs her twins in Uganda

Nancy

Fourteen-year-old Nancy hops up to us at impressive speed, her foot scuffing along ground. Her right foot is twisted and she can’t walk on it. The uneven ground is hard to move across. It’s clear Nancy can’t move far from the temporary home she is living in.

Because of her disability, Nancy couldn’t go to school. “Children would tease me because I’m not able to move,” Nancy says. You’ve helped BMS partner Hope Health Action transport wheelchairs to people like Nancy, and now Nancy can get to school.

“I am very happy with my wheelchair. It can take me anywhere,” says Nancy. “I want to be a nurse.” It’s the most confidently she’s spoken.

A South Sudanese girl in a blue wheel chair in front of a tree in Uganda.

We want the UK Church to be at the forefront of raising awareness of the conflict in South Sudan. You can help. Our 2019 appeal resource South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors is now available to share with friends and to run at your church’s harvest service this year. You can also download this story to share with others or subscribe to Engage to read more about the humans behind the South Sudan crisis. Together we can make sure these incredible conflict survivors are not forgotten.

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Want to share this story? Why not print it out to share with your church!

Original article featured in Issue 44 of Engage, the BMS World Mission Magazine. Edited for the website by Melanie Webb.

South Sudan: windows of prayer

South Sudan's Conflict Survivors

Your church can help refugees from South Sudan living in Uganda, this Harvest or at any time of year.

Find out more

South Sudan:

windows of prayer

Praying for this

The peace deal signed by warring parties went unheeded. Hoping for harmony can feel naïve. But BMS World Mission’s supporters are armed with the power to pray.

Annet gave birth on the road. She was heavily pregnant when she was forced to flee from her home in South Sudan. “Our health facilities were closed. I didn’t have any tests,” she explained. Her mother boiled some water for her in a jug – that was all the help she had. With a newborn baby, she then faced the impossible task of finding enough food. “If the war had not broken out, I would not have gone through this,” said Annet. “Giving birth on the way. Not being able to feed my baby.”

If the war had not broken out, I would not have gone through this

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the world’s youngest nation, and the conflict rages on. South Sudan celebrated independence just seven years ago, but a dispute between the country’s President and his former deputy quickly developed into a broader conflict between ethnic groups. Since war broke out at the end of 2013, over one third of the population has been displaced.

Men building with red bricks
South Sudanese people are having to rebuild their lives in refugee camps, like this one in Uganda.

Scrolling through the figures in endless news cycles is dispiriting. It seems impossible to help when thousands of miles separate you from those in need. And when the news seems oblivious to the suffering, it can even be hard to know how to pray. Thankfully, BMS local workers are in the refugee camps. They’re sharing stories of the individuals behind the overwhelming statistics, so that we can pray for people by name.

We can pray for mothers like Annet. Annet doesn’t want any mother to experience the trauma she did. Let’s pray that BMS workers can get healthy, sustaining food to babies at risk of malnourishment. These workers are providing health checks to pregnant women – the kind of prenatal tests that Annet desperately needed. We need to pray that these checks can reach every woman who needs them.

A woman holds a baby and smiles.
Annet gave birth to her baby on the road. BMS-funded projects will mean that pregnant women can access vital health checks.

We can pray for people with disabilities, like Abbe Rose. She escaped, along with her husband and children, after some of their family members were killed. The journey they made is unimaginable: Abbe Rose wasn’t even able to bring her wheelchair. But, Abbe was given a wheelchair by her new church – South Sudanese Christians living in the camps and helping themselves – as well as each other. Abbe Rose can now get to church meetings and medical appointments and meet with friends – things that were previously impossible. “If I’m sick or my child is sick, she can push me,” Abbe explains. “We can go together.” Please pray for more people like Abbe to be given the mobility they have been denied.

A woman sits in a wheelchair
Abbe Rose’s wheelchair means she can get to medical appointments and church meetings.

These stories are windows into a conflict that is overwhelming in its severity and scope.

We can be overwhelmed by them, or we can use them both to pray for the challenges ahead and to thank God for the blessings BMS workers have seen. “I had no choice but to leave it to God,” says Annet of her struggles. It is a privilege to bring her situation, and that of others too, to God in prayer. Please pray right now with us:

  1. Please pray that malnourished babies get the nourishing food they desperately need.
  2. Please pray for people with disabilities, that their needs would not be overlooked. Pray for wheelchairs and other liberating blessings for those who need them.
  3. Many South Sudanese parents are concerned for their children’s education – the key to a secure future. Pray that families would be able to continue their children’s schooling.
  4. Pray for our BMS workers, that they are encouraged as they continue to deliver projects and interventions for those in need.
  5. Pray for peace between warring factions in South Sudan, that all fighting would come to an end.

Why not download these prayers and save them to your favourite device? All you need to do is hit the button below.

Download the prayer points
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You help when others don’t: 4 ways you’ve been supporting relief work across the world

You help when others don’t:

4 ways you’ve been supporting relief work across the world

Supporting this

When a disaster or conflict hits a nation, we know you want to help. Thanks to your faithful support for BMS World Mission, you are.

Four disasters, each marked by terrible suffering and loss. You will have heard about the conflict in Ukraine, the civil war in South Sudan, the lingering devastation from Nepal’s earthquakes, and the impact of a tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. What you might not know is that by giving to BMS, you’ve supported the people who desperately need help. We’re in a strong position to respond in times of disaster as we’re part of a global family of Baptists.

BMS World Mission is part of the Baptist Forum for Aid and Development (BFAD), a collective of Baptist organisations from across the world devoted to supporting those left in crisis as they rebuild after a disaster strikes. But vital help wouldn’t happen without your support. “It has been a joy to see the Baptist family come together,” says Rachel Conway-Doel, BMS Relief Facilitator. “The potential we have to make an impact is very exciting.”

Here are some exciting ways that you, the BMS family, have already helped:

1. Keeping people warm in Ukraine

A truck carrying boxes.
Vital heating equipment is being distributed to people in danger of freezing in Ukraine, where temperatures can drop to minus 25 degrees in winter.

Over 1.5 million people have been displaced in Ukraine due to the ongoing conflict between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russia separatists, leaving many of them with no means to stay warm in sub-zero temperatures. Thanks to your generosity, we’ve been able to help provide people in Ukraine with thermal underwear, ceramic heaters, coal and wood to help them get through the dangerous winter months. We’d like to say a special thank you to all those who’ve responded to our Ukraine appeal in the last few months. You’ve really made a difference!

2. Standing by the people of Nepal

A street of collapsed buildings
Nearly 8 million people were directly affected by the devastating earthquakes that struck Nepal in 2015.

The media might not be there anymore, but BMS has continued to stand with the people of Nepal to help them rebuild after the catastrophic earthquakes that hit in 2015. Your giving has supported the rebuilding of public buildings and schools and provided disaster risk management training to help communities be better prepared should such a tragic disaster occur again.

3. Giving crucial support to South Sudanese refugees

Woman using a hand cranked wheelchair/tricycle
Many people with disabilities had to be carried out of South Sudan. You support has helped provide wheelchairs for people unable to walk.

Five years of civil war in South Sudan has forced more than two million people to flee this young nation. Many have sought refuge in Uganda, reaching camps that stretch for miles. BMS funds have so far helped provide vital food rations to 1,700 children suffering from malnutrition, as well as food, agricultural tools, wheelchairs and pastoral support to people with disabilities.

4. Coming to the aid of tsunami survivors

A destroyed van.
Thousands of people we displaced after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami on the island of Sulawesi last year.

Over 2,100 people were killed and 87,000 displaced after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in October last year. Your support provided people on the ground with emergency food and personal hygiene kits and helped to build shelters and provide counselling support to trauma victims.

It’s thanks to your heart for demonstrating God’s love that we can stand alongside people who need help. When South Sudanese refugees say praise God for providing food and a wheelchair, it’s because of your solidarity in the gospel. And when an earthquake victim who’s lost their home is able to take shelter, it’s you who’s helped to provide that roof. But there are so many others we would like to support.

I want to support relief work Click here
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Please, give today and come to the aid of those who need to know Christian love across the world. Thank you.

In pictures: meet the South Sudanese refugees you’re helping

In pictures:

Meet the South Sudanese refugees you're helping

Supporting this
South Sudan's Conflict Survivors

Your church can help refugees from
South Sudan living in Uganda,
at harvest or at any other time of year.

Find out more

It’s the largest refugee crisis in Africa and the third largest in the world. Over two million people have now fled the conflict in South Sudan, with more than a million of them ending up in Uganda. The numbers are overwhelming – but the people are amazing. And you’ve been helping them. Here’s how.

Forced to flee their homes because of the fighting, South Sudanese families arrived (and continue to arrive) in Uganda with nothing. You’ve been supporting some of the most at-risk people in Palorinya and Bidi Bidi refugee settlements, as well as helping those who have settled right by the border with South Sudan.

BMS local worker Patrick
BMS local worker Isaac

You’re supporting these two amazing men – Patrick and Isaac – to run projects to help displaced South Sudanese people. Both Patrick and Isaac are South Sudanese refugees themselves, and they have huge hearts for those struggling in the settlements. By giving to BMS World Mission, you’re helping them to reach out to people with disabilities, widows, single parents and other vulnerable people.

How you're helping: food

You’ve funded the transport and logistics to enable 1,700 severely malnourished children to access Plumpy’Nut, a special peanut-based paste to help them get healthy again. This little boy is nearly at the end of his treatment and is doing much better!

Dube is now growing food to support himself and his family. Dube has a disability with his leg, and you provided him with seeds and tools to start growing a harvest. His is one of 100 families you’ve supported in this way.

Henry is unable to walk and therefore cannot farm for himself. He has two daughters and his wife left him because of his disability. Henry isn’t living in an official refugee camp and so isn’t eligible for government support. You’ve been providing him and 1,000 other people with food rations – essential for their survival.

How you're helping: maternal health

Jane gave birth to her baby, Irene, while fleeing the conflict in her village. She had no medical assistance, and after she gave birth she had to get up and carry on walking. Her story is not uncommon. Thankfully, Jane survived. But pregnancy and childbirth are terrifying concepts for people living in the refugee settlements. There’s a lack of access to health care, which means health conditions that can normally be easily managed end up costing lives.

By supporting BMS, you’re helping women access the medical checks they need to stay healthy during pregnancy. Irene is pregnant and has high blood pressure, but thanks to you, she’s aware of her health condition and is being carefully monitored. If anything changes, she will be rushed to a health clinic in Bidi Bidi refugee camp where she lives.

Irene found out about her blood pressure because of the cradle device – a highly accurate automated blood pressure device that also detects heart rate and shock index. You helped pay for 714 cradle devices, which means that all 17 NGO-run clinics in Bidi Bidi now have access to it. On top of that, over 450 volunteer health team workers covering the entire settlement have use of their own cradle device to monitor the health of people in their community – detecting high-risk pregnancies and other potentially life-threatening illnesses.

Women like these are getting accurate blood pressure checks when they come for check-ups in Bidi Bidi’s health centres. That means that conditions that could have been missed before are being identified.

Angok is one of the 450 volunteer health workers now armed with a cradle device. He goes and visits people in his community and monitors their health. It’s really simple to use the device, and Angok is now able to make sure pregnant women at risk of illnesses like preeclampsia get help before it’s too late.

How you're helping: destigmatising disability

You’re supporting South Sudanese Christians and churches to help people like Harriet. People with disabilities are some of the most vulnerable people in the refugee settlements. You’re helping us to find them, to support them, and to help them and their communities understand that they are important and have value.

You’re empowering the church to destigmatise disability and make sure the people who need help most receive it.

Thank you so much for supporting our work amongst South Sudanese refugees!  Meet some of these individuals and others in the South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors feature video – and find out how your church can help by organising a fundraising service or event, at harvest or any other time of year.

Want to help South Sudanese refugees? Click here
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5 ways you’re making the world a healthier place

5 ways you’re making the world a healthier place

Supporting this

Saving mothers and babies in Afghanistan and helping pregnant refugees. Discover five of the ways your generous support for BMS World Mission is helping to provide healthcare for thousands of people around the world.

1. Meeting medical needs in Chad

There is one qualified doctor in Chad for every 25,000 people. Nearly 40 per cent of children have stunted growth because of a lack of food, and illnesses such as malaria, HIV and Aids affect many people’s lives. But thanks to you, hospitals in Chad (one near the capital and one in the north of the country) are providing much-needed medical treatment and helping people survive. Your giving has enabled us to fund pharmacists, surgeons, doctors, nurses, malnutrition prevention workers, midwives and other hospital staff who are giving the right care to thousands of people. They’re treating gunshot wounds, cancer and malaria, and delivering babies, thanks to you.

2. Giving children with disabilities the support they need

Children with disabilities in Thailand face huge challenges. Many families struggle to cope with the needs of their children, and government orphanages are often unable to provide the one-on-one care and support they need.

Thanks to your giving, BMS worker Judy Cook is providing therapeutic and respite care to children with disabilities at Hope Home, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Hope Home currently provides full-time care for ten children, and offers respite care for many other children and their families.

Check out the amazing work you’re supporting in this video:

3. Coming to the aid of pregnant refugees

The South Sudanese women who make it to Bidi Bidi refugee camp in northern Uganda after fleeing conflict are often in danger of dying during pregnancy or childbirth. But thanks to your giving, an electronic device that measures people’s blood pressure and heart rate is helping to save lives. At least 7,000 pregnant women will receive medical checks that could identify any problems and save their lives, and the lives of their unborn children. To read more about how the device works and the impact your support is having, click the button below.

Read more

4. Saving the lives of mothers and babies in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has some of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world. In remote mountain villages, it’s difficult for pregnant women to get to clinics to give birth, and unsafe birthing practices such as smearing dirt on the umbilical cord, or pushing on the mother’s stomach during labour to make the baby come out, can lead to infection and even death.

You’re enabling us to help train men and women in safe birthing practices in the mountains of rural Afghanistan. You’re helping them learn to spot when something is wrong, and to dispel unsafe birthing practices, and you’re saving the lives of mothers and babies as a result.

5. Giving children a voice through speech therapy

Being unable to communicate your feelings and needs to the community around you can be incredibly isolating. In northern Uganda, BMS worker Lois Ovenden is providing speech and language therapy to children with disabilities. We’ll leave it to her to explain more of the inspiring work she’s doing in this video:

By supporting BMS, you’re funding life-transforming health work like this around the world. Thank you! You can help us do even more by making a donation today.

Inspired to give? Click Here
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Coming to the aid of pregnant refugees

Technology and mission:

Coming to the aid of pregnant refugees

Supporting this

Women in refugee camps in Uganda are in danger of dying during pregnancy or childbirth. That threat is about to change for thousands of them, thanks to an electronic device and your support for BMS World Mission.

They’ve fled a civil war, trekking for days to cross the border from South Sudan into Uganda, seeking sanctuary from crippling food shortages and men with guns and machetes. They’ve fled to save themselves, their loved ones, and the ones yet to be born.

The South Sudanese women who make it to the Bidi Bidi refugee camp in northern Uganda find a settlement of tents and mud-brick huts that sprawls for miles. The number of people living there, roughly 280,000, is higher than the population of many a British city, and most of them are women and children.

Refugee women and children walk along a dirt track in northern Uganda
Women and children have walked for miles to escape conflict in South Sudan.

Left behind because they were killed, abducted, forced to fight, or too weak to travel, are brothers, sisters, grandparents, children… and future fathers. An estimated one in five women of childbearing age in humanitarian emergencies like this are likely to be pregnant. Keep that in mind when you read the following:

– An estimated 830 women die every day from pregnancy and birth-related causes around the world.

– Of these maternal deaths, 99 per cent happen in developing countries.

– More than 50 per cent of maternal deaths are caused by conditions that could be detected if vital signs were assessed.

A £20 handheld device that measures blood pressure and heart rate can change these statistics. It is called the Microlife Cradle VSA (Vital Signs Alert), and from March, hundreds will be used in the Bidi Bidi camp, and the Nakivale refugee settlement in south west Uganda.

A patient in Haiti has her blood pressure and heart rate checked.
The device has already been used to help pregnant women in Haiti. Picture by Hope Health Action.

How does the device work?

The device needs minimal training to operate and uses a traffic light warning system that shows the risk of shock or high blood pressure in a patient.

– A green light shows the patient’s blood pressure and heart rate are normal, and they are likely to be well.

– A yellow light shows the blood pressure is high, and the patient could have pre-eclampsia, a condition that occurs in pregnancy, or soon after delivery. If untreated, it can cause a pregnant woman to suffer a seizure, stroke or even die.

– A red light shows that blood pressure is very high and the patient could have severe pre-eclampsia, or may have severe bleeding or infection.

Watch a step by step guide to using the device

Thanks to your gifts, at least 7,000 pregnant women will receive a medical check that could save both their lives, and the life of their unborn children. The device will alert volunteer health workers to a problem that can then be referred to a doctor or nurse.

BMS funding of £18,000 will help partner organisation Hope Health Action (working with King’s College London and the United Nations refugee agency) distribute more than 700 of these devices into the two camps from March and train people to use them.

South Sudanese refugees climb a hill at the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement in Uganda.

By giving to BMS, you’re making a life-saving difference to women in the Bidi Bidi and Nakivale refugee settlements.

But it could lead to so many others being helped, as it’s hoped a successful programme will prompt the Ugandan health ministry to distribute the device to other refugee camps.

We give thanks for your gifts. Amazing things are happening because of you.

Want to help us do more? Click Here
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