International Pandemic Appeal
Dear Friends,
Since we came together as Christian leaders and concerned citizens to sign the open letter in April 2020, many of you have asked what further action we could take as a community of Christians to help those who have been affected by the pandemic. In this unprecedented time of need and uncertainty, we saw unique value in standing as a group to create the COVID-19 BC Christian Leaders Response Fund (“CLF”). Our objective was to widen the net by harnessing our networks and inspiring other Christians to action.
“For God so loved the world…” John 3:16
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed’, but do nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?” James 2:14-16
The response has been incredible! We have raised over $1,100,000 to assist two specific groups in BC: senior citizens and the marginalized.
Once more we are turning to you, BC Christian leaders and community, to establish the COVID-19 BC International Christian Leaders Response Initiative. This time we are coming together to support international Christian ministries that are caring for children and families in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities, which have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These 8 different Canadian Christian agencies are working to provide people with the basic necessities of life, while working to protect them from the spread and impacts of this virus. These organizations are also working to protect these communities from the results of the COVID-19 pandemic, which are threatening to put an additional 100 million people into extreme poverty and will add as many as a further 230 million to the 690 million people who were already in acute hunger before the pandemic. The statistics are overwhelming:
Only 6% of the global population of 8 billion have been fully vaccinated. Almost 4 million people have died. It will take a decade for most of the world to recover.
The pandemic has triggered the deepest global recession since the 1930s. Extreme poverty has risen for the first time in 22 years, and unemployment has increased dramatically. The World Bank predicts that COVID-19 will add as many as 150 million to the extreme poor in 2021, half of them children. (World Vision research)
We hope you will consider joining us in supporting these efforts, and in inspiring other Christians to engage as well. By collectively putting our faith into action, we help bring hope to a hurting world and bring the support they urgently need to overcome the threat of this virus to their health and lives.
Click on the names of each organization below for a direct link. We encourage you to read about them and give to one, some, or all. We would like hundreds of people to give from $100 to $10,000 or more or less. Our families (Tom & Karen and Tim & Mary) have decided to give $7500 to support these 8 worthy causes.
Should you give to one of these organizations as a result of COVID-19 BC International Christian Leaders Response Initiative (through the links below or in some other way) please let them know, so we can track the total amount raised. Please feel free to send this email to your world.
Blessings,
Tom and Karen Cooper
Tom, President of City in Focus
Karen, Assistant Editor, Postscript Magazine, BC Retired Teachers Association
City in Focus Foundation
PO Box 20089 Fairview
Vancouver, BC V5Z 0C1
604-687-7292
tom@cityinfocus.ca and valeria@cityinfocus.ca
Tim and Mary Dickau
Tim, President of City Gate Leadership Forum
Mary, Community Care Coordinator, Beulah Garden Homes
778-239-5436
dickautim@gmail.com
Agencies in Canada that are helping the worldwide pandemic effort:
1. Canadian Foodgrains Bank is Charity Intelligence top ten impact charity and is a partnership of 15 church based agencies working together to end global hunger. Working with locally based agencies in over thirty seven countries to meet emergency food needs as well as helping create long term solutions to hunger, Foodgrains is on the front lines of responding to the food security issues created by the pandemic across the developing world.
2. Compassion Canada As one of the world’s leading child development organizations, Compassion partners with the local church in 25 countries to end poverty in the lives of children and their families, in Jesus’ name. Since the global shutdown, Compassion Canada, with its international partners and the local church, has provided urgent care to communities most impacted by the pandemic through the delivery of food packs and hygiene kits, by helping to provide access to medical care, and through cash transfers to families in need.
3. Development and Peace (Caritas Canada) Development and Peace – Caritas Canada support partners in the Global South who promote alternatives to unfair social, political and economic structures, and educate the Canadian population about the causes of poverty. This year’s campaign efforts are focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic through the theme of Recovering Together. Many of Development and Peace’s programs have shifted their efforts to combat the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic – from direct medical needs to the more ‘hidden’ consequences like food shortages, increased domestic violence and the mistreatment of human rights defenders.
4. Food for the Hungry Canada
Food for the Hungry Canada walks alongside vulnerable communities throughout the developing world as they strive toward sustainability through an integrated, holistic approach to development including priorities such as agriculture, education, health, and gender equality. To best support families disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, FH has four main responses:
Keep staff and community members safe
Provide essential lifesaving services to communities.
Reduce the spread.
Recover early.
5. Hope International
Compelled by compassion in action, HOPE International is a collective of entrepreneurial people responsive to the experiences of overlooked families living in extreme poverty. Founded in 1975, HOPE connects donors, volunteers and teams here in Canada, with opportunities to fuel lasting change around the world. Right now, we are empowering communities to use 20% of their funding to focus on emergency COVID response in addition to facilitating clean water, food security and livelihoods initiatives.
6. International China Concern
International China Concern is a Christian development organization that provides love, hope and opportunity to children with disabilities and strives to end abandonment by keeping families together. During the COVID lockdown in China our dedicated staff chose to remain in our facilities for 45 consecutive days to provide food, therapy, and health care for the hundreds of children who are in our care. They did this at the expense of being with their own families.
7. Opportunity International Canada
Opportunity International’s mission is to help all people achieve a life free from poverty, with dignity and purpose, by providing financial solutions and support that empowers small businesses in developing economies. The COVID-19 reality for people at the bottom of the economic pyramid, turned already-precarious lives into an economic, health, social & educational catastrophe. Opportunity’s ministry is engaging on the front lines of economic recovery helping global communities “survive so they can thrive” post pandemic.
8. World Vision Canada
World Vision teams are working tirelessly, implementing our largest ever global emergency response, in 70 countries, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate the impact of its aftershocks. In countries like India, we are ramping up to provide critical supplies like oxygen and hospital beds to prevent more deaths. COVID-19 has changed the entire world, but especially the lives of the most vulnerable. Many children right now are at higher risk of violence and forced marriage, healthcare systems are strained, and families need more help than ever coping with the health, educational and economic impacts of the pandemic. Your support is needed now more than ever. Thank you for your consideration.
