Pakistan: Poor response to Christmas charity efforts

Several organizations have reported difficulties and disappointments in their charitable fund raising efforts for Christmas.

Mitchell’s Fruit Farms, the oldest food company in Pakistan, makes regular donations to the poor at this time of year.

“One of our sales executives, a parishioner, has been liaising with this for three years,”  said Anzar Hameed, the company’s head of sales. “But this year the idea was almost dropped because of rising operation costs.”

However, the company managed to supply food items worth 25,000 rupees (US$256) to Catholic widows at Sacred Heart Cathedral last Sunday.

At Caritas Pakistan Lahore, staff donated two percent of their monthly salary after a poor response to their World Food Day campaign.

“The activity of handing over money boxes to students ran for about three months. We focused on Church schools where children usually belong to well-to-do families,” said Caritas manager Anila Gill. “The return from two major institutions was only US$15.”

By supplementing the fund with their own two percent salary donations, Caritas was able to bring some cheer to 30 poverty stricken brickmakers’ families, who were given toys and sweets for Christmas.

SOURCE:

UCA News