Vietnam Evangelical Covenant Church – On the morning of September 17, 2021, the Community Development Ministry partnered with the LIGHT Institute for Community Health and Development and the Women’s Union of Bạch Đằng ward, Hai Bà Trưng district, to give 42 gifts to women migrant workers in Bạch Đằng struggling because of Covid-19.
See photos: all the photos of the gift-giving on the Community Development Ministry fanpage
Caring for Vulnerable Women
After the “Connecting and Sharing Love” program for migrant workers in August, the ministry wanted to focus on a special group: women in informal work, some with serious illnesses, who were stranded in the city during the lockdown.
In the days before, the ministry and the Bạch Đằng Ward Women’s Union surveyed the number of women migrant workers living in the area to draw up a list of recipients. By the afternoon of September 16, the gifts were ready at the office.
Two Gifts for Each Woman
Each woman received two gifts:
- The LIGHT Institute gave 500,000 dong in cash to each person;
- The Community Development Ministry gave a pack with 5 kg of rice, cooking oil, fish sauce, 1 kg of fish, 10 eggs and 0.5 kg of shelled peanuts.
The gifts were essentials, prepared with care by ministry members and the LIGHT Institute, hoping to arrive in time and share more with those in hardship. For the women, they were encouragement to keep their faith and get through the pandemic together with the authorities and people of Hai Bà Trưng district.
The Lives Behind the Gifts
The trip let ministry members meet many different lives of informal workers. There was a 100-year-old woman who still collects scrap to survive. There was a deaf-mute person and a person with a disability selling drinks at a bus transfer station. There was a family where the wife has a disability and the husband has a mental illness.
These stories left the team with many questions: how can we help everyone who is struggling right now? There was no immediate answer, but it spurred the ministry to keep finding ways to serve in the months that followed.
Serving the Least Is Serving the Lord
Jesus taught that care shown to the smallest and most vulnerable is shown to Him:
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.” (Matthew 25:40)
Partnering with the LIGHT Institute and the ward Women’s Union also shows that when many organizations join hands, help can reach the right people and go further than working alone.
Let Us Pray Together
- For women migrant workers to be healthy and soon find work and stable income again.
- For the elderly, people with disabilities and the sick whom the ministry met to be cared for and comforted.
- For the Community Development Ministry to have many more opportunities to do good works that please God.
Read more in Community Development and Church News. Contact the church office: 0942 248 688 (Zalo available).
