“In order to survive we had to flee,” explained “Hayma”, a displaced and homeless believer in one of Myanmar’s Christian-majority states.
Hayma, her husband and their two children (aged nine and one) were forced to evacuate their home village to escape Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) attacks.
“Every day and night the military just fire heavy weapons and bombards our village,” she says. “They even sent aircraft and dropped bombs on our village.”
“Hayma” with her husband and two children. The family are now living in a temporary shelter in a camp for internally displaced persons
“The worst thing is that soldiers entered our village and burned down all the houses,” she adds. “We were so sad that all our belongings in our house were burned down by the military.”
Hayma’s is just one of the traumatic accounts reported to Barnabas Aid by our project partners in Myanmar, where horrendous violence against ethnic-minority Christians persists.
Since the military coup of February 2021, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Myanmar has swollen to 1.7 million. Among them are hundreds of thousands of Christians, many of whom have lost loved ones as well as homes and property.
Provision of aid continues
Thanks to your generous donations, Barnabas Aid continues to provide vital aid to Christians suffering this ongoing persecution.
Food items include staples such as rice, noodles, fish, vegetables, beans, peppers and oil. Our partners have also distributed baby formula to those with infants, along with medical supplies, tarpaulins and blankets.
Our partners work in great difficulty and danger to ensure that aid funded using Barnabas supporters’ donations reaches its destination. The terrain is unforgiving. In one distribution several boat trips were needed to transport aid to an IDP camp, followed by an onward journey by four-wheel drive truck. Other journeys required an ox and cart.
Around 3,500 Christian families (an estimated 17,500 people) were reached in the period April-December 2022 – and this provision of practical aid is continuing.
Pray that the Lord will continue to bless our efforts to supply food and other practical assistance to our persecuted Christian family in Myanmar. Ask that He will comfort the bereaved and the traumatised, sustaining them in their faith despite their suffering. Pray for an end to violence and hostility.
Project reference: 75-763 (Aid for persecuted Myanmar Christians)
