Salesians respond with survival food packages for 100 families impacted by flooding

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries have been responding with food support for those impacted by devastating flooding in Thailand. The flooding, which started in the beginning of September and ran through the middle of October, was caused by heavy rain and tropical storms. The flooding hit 59 of Thailand’s 77 provinces and impacted more than 450,000 homes as well as damaging agricultural land in key farming regions.

The Salesian Society of Thailand, led by Father Ekasit Talhakultorn, in collaboration with former Salesian seminarians, representatives of ADMA, and a team of youth volunteers, handed out survival food packages to more than 100 families in Rangsit, the Immaculate Conception Church community, and other locations. These areas have been emerged in deep water and people have had to retreat to the second level of their houses.

The survival food packages were put together by former Salesian students as one step in helping to mitigate some of the suffering the flooding has caused.

“Salesian missionaries live among the communities in which they work and are perfectly positioned to provide humanitarian aid and emergency relief supplies in times of emergency,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesians will be there now to help during the flooding and there long after helping families to have their basic needs met and help them rebuild their homes and livelihoods.”

Thailand has shown considerable economic growth over the last 20 years, reducing its poverty rate from 21 percent in 2000 to 10.9 percent in 2018, according to the World Bank. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, caused a sharp rise in the country’s “targeted poor” (those who hold state-issued welfare cards) as noted by the Thai People Map and Analytics Platform. Close to 43,000 more people are classified in the country as poor according to the recent report. That brings the total to 1.03 million people in this target group.

Although the country has made strides in reducing poverty before the pandemic, improving nutrition and meeting the basic needs of its residents, inequality is still pervasive.

###

Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)

ANS – Thailand – Helping the Flood Victims

Salesian Missions – Thailand

Salesian Thailand

The Nation Thailand – Poverty Rates

World Bank – Thailand