Give them some food
(Mt 14,16)
As you know, the Covid pandemic has affected every country in the world including Vietnam. The southern provinces of the country have been the most seriously affected and Ho Chi Minh City has the most serious conditions.
The poor and homeless lack food and many workers are unemployed because most factories and businesses are shut down. Social isolation and lockdowns are being enforced throughout the southern provinces of Vietnam.
We Vietnamese Franciscans are doing what we can to help the poor overcome the food crisis. The JPIC Animator and the Mission Animator are working with our friars to provide foods and necessary supplies to those in need.
We are providing essential foods such as rice, vegetables and fruit. In the future we are planning to distribute meat and milk as a result of the generosity of our benefactors. The distribution of the food is divided in two different ways: 1) The poor come to our friaries and the friars give out what they have available; 2) Volunteers go into the quarantined areas and distribute food to the needy in their houses.
Our Province has thirteen friars who have volunteered to work in field combat hospitals which are being set up to care for the Covid patients. In addition, the Franciscan parishes in Ho Chi Minh City are also providing cooked foods and rice to those in need.
Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam, with almost 8.9 million inhabitants, and it has many factories in its industrial zones. Unemployment is increasing because the factories are closed during the pandemic. As a result of the closures many of the workers have returned to their home villages. For the most part they are traveling by motorbike, and we try to assist them with food and other supplies.
Our funds are running out and we need financial support so that we can continue helping those in need.
May God grant peace to the world and to you!
Br. Peter Mai Dong Dang, OFM
JPIC Animator
Province of St. Francis of Assisi – Vietnam
