Christians are being overlooked in corona food aid distribution

As the world goes through food security
and financial crises due to the coronavirus
pandemic, disadvantaged Christian
communities in Asia, especially in Vietnam
and Pakistan, are being hit the hardest as
government and aid agencies discriminate
against them due to their faith, according
to reports.
In the communist country of Vietnam in
Southeast Asia, the government is denying
food aid to more than 100 Christians,
including children and the elderly,
according to Open Doors , a ministry to
persecuted Christians worldwide.
“You are Christians and your God shall
take care of your family!” authorities told
18 Christian families, comprising 107
people, in north Vietnam. “The government
is not responsible for your families!”
A local partner of Open Doors, which was
not identified due to security reasons, said,
“They strive to put food on their tables, and
they consume their rice little by little every
day. When they learned that the
government’s support was coming to their
district, they were so happy — only to find
out that they were not on the list because
they are Christians.”
Christians often face ostracism, threats,
torture and prison sentences in Vietnam,
whose atheist government doesn’t tolerate
any faith or ideology other than
communism.
Vietnam’s communist regime, which
requires its officials to use a secret 600-
page manual to repress religion, fears
Christianity, which involves building a
community of believers and promotes
respect for human dignity. The government
views citizens’ freedom to form
associations as a threat to its power,
according to the International Federation
for Human Rights.
Vietnam ranks as the 21st worst nation in
the world when it comes to Christian
persecution on Open Doors USA’s 2020
World Watch List.
“Estimates indicate that approximately 80
percent of the country’s Christians belong
to the country’s ethnic minorities, like the
Hmong, and face social exclusion,
discrimination and attacks. Ethnic minority
Christian children are discriminated against
in schools; their medical needs also are
often neglected. Some are not even
allowed to attend school at all,” according
to Open Doors .
In Pakistan, Muslim charities are excluding
Christians from their distribution of food
aid and emergency, according to Vatican
News , which cited the international
Catholic charity and foundation Aid to the
Church in Need.
ACN International Executive President
Thomas Heine-Geldern said that many
Christians earn the lowest wages, working
as daily-wage laborers, domestic servants,
cleaners, or kitchen staff. “All these areas
of employment are precisely the ones that
have been most impacted by the economic
shutdown,” he said after being briefed by
Cecil Shane Chaudhry, executive director of
the National Commission for Justice and
Peace of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’
Conference.
“Many Christian employees have been
dismissed without notice by families for
whom they have worked for years,” Heine-
Geldern added.
The U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom also took note of
discrimination in aid distribution in
Pakistan. “As COVID19 continues to
spread, vulnerable communities within
Pakistan are fighting hunger and to keep
their families safe and healthy. Food aid
must not be denied because of one’s faith,”
Anurima Bhargava, a USCIRF
commissioner said.
Open Doors USA’s 2020 World Watch List
ranks Pakistan as the fifth worst nation in
the world in persecuting Christians.
“Although there have been no major
bombing attacks against church buildings
in the 2020 World Watch List reporting
period, dozens of smaller ‘everyday
attacks’ against churches and cemeteries
occur,” the ministry says.
Christians are often targeted both by
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws meant to
protect Islamic sensitivities and by
hardliners who carry out violence and have
killed scores of believers in the past
several years.