Imagine you live in a house with mud walls, thatched with straw. One night the terrorists descend on your village and set fire to your house and every other house – just because it is a Christian village. How quickly the straw roofs catch alight!
Imagine torrential rain, the worst for a generation, pouring down on your straw roof. Imagine the flood waters rising, higher than anyone can remember – how long will your mud walls stand?
For Christians in Chad, this is not imaginary. It is reality.
Many Christians in Chad live in houses made with mud bricks and with straw roofs. These are vulnerable to both flood damage and fires set by militants
This year’s rainy season saw torrential downpours in July and August – the heaviest rains for 32 years. The flooding is on a scale never seen before. An estimated 340,000 people living in 55,000 households have been affected, including many Christians.
“We are still in the rainy season,” our Chadian project partner pointed out to Barnabas Aid this week, meaning that the number of flood victims may rise still further.
At the same time, Christians are finding themselves under attack by Islamist militants who burn down Christian villages.
Destruction by fire, destruction by water
In some places Christians have endured destruction by both fire and water: arson by militants and flooding from extreme rainfall.
Images from Chad’s capital city N'Djamena show the unprecedented scale of the flooding. Many vulnerable mud houses in more rural areas have been destroyed. Can you help us to feed homeless and destitute Christian families? [Image credit: IOM]
We hope, by God’s grace and your gifts and prayers, to feed 4,000 Christian families who have been made homeless and destitute by water or fire, that is, around 25,000 people.
50 kg of maize for one family costs £22 ($24; €24).
Will you feed a Christian family in Chad who have lost everything?
The scale of the need is vast, but your help for even one family will make a world of difference to them.
