Project(s): 00-514
Hope for Christian children
For many Christian children, in Muslim-majority countries and elsewhere, their hope for the future is diminished by the lack of a proper education. In countries such as Pakistan or India, Christian parents often lack the basic literacy skills that would enable them to gain reasonably paid jobs. As a result they simply cannot afford to send their children to school, and the next generation is unable to pick up the skills that their parents lacked. So families are locked into a vicious cycle of poverty and illiteracy.
In some contexts free education is provided by the government, but in Muslim countries Islam is promoted strongly at the government schools. In other places the only affordable schools for needy families are run by non-Christian religions. Christian children may well be mocked and their faith belittled, and they can even be deliberately failed in their examinations. Christian parents want to protect their children from this hostile environment.
Children in their classroom at a school in Sudan
So a good education for Christian children in a Christian context is a vital felt need among our needy and persecuted brothers and sisters. It provides hope for the future not only for the individual children, but for the whole Christian community, as a generation of well-educated Christians will be a source of professional skills and financial resources. The Church is also strengthened for the future, as the children grow up strong in their Christian faith.
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| These three children, refugees from Sudan, are educated at a school in Egypt |
Barnabas Fund currently assists 18 Christian schools or education projects in six countries: Pakistan, India, Egypt, Sudan, Chad and the Holy Land. We help to fund the construction of school buildings, and also to meet the running costs of the schools, including equipment, books and materials, school uniforms and teacher training. With this support the schools are enabled to offer places to impoverished families at minimal or no cost. At some of the schools, the children are also given a nutritious cooked meal and some medical care, basics that their parents probably could not afford to provide for them at home.
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| Health care for Indian Christian school-children |
Our School-Place Sponsorship Fund (ref. 00-514) enables about 3,700 children of Christian parents to get an education in a Christian environment. Will you please consider giving a gift to this fund to offer these children, and others like them, hope for the future? Newsletters about the project are sent twice a year to supporters, to keep them informed about the difference that their gifts are making to the lives of their young Christian brothers and sisters.
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| Children at a school in Bethlehem enjoying their carnival |
Donate today
If you can help, please click this link to donate online using our secure server. (Please quote project reference 00-514)
If you prefer to telephone, dial: 0800 587 4006 from within the UK or +44 1672 565031 from outside the UK. (Please quote project reference 00-514)
If you prefer to send a cheque by post: Click this link for addresses of our regional offices. (Please quote project reference 00-514)
