Displaying items by tag: Outreach

It's a volatile neighbourhood with conflicts, terrorism, and food shortages on all sides. With Libya to its north, Sudan to its east, Central African Republic and Cameroon to its south, and Nigeria to its west, Chad continually attracts the masses seeking refuge when trouble occurs across this region. But there is little refuge to be found, only inadequate infrastructure, instability, conflict, immense poverty, notorious governmental corruption and threats of terrorism. The people of Chad have urgent physical needs. But there is an even greater tragedy that affects eternity: there are more unreached people groups in Chad than in any other nation on earth. The good news is that the number of Muslims turning to Christ is steadily growing. Efforts to reach the unreached are seeing fruit! The door in Chad remains miraculously open to the Gospel.

Tory MP Nigel Evans has harshly criticised a foreign aid programme that hands money directly to Pakistan’s poorest people. Britain currently helps fund the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), which offered cash support to over 235,000 families across Pakistan in 2012 and could be helping 441,000 by 2020. The Department for International Development (DfID) argues that offering just over £10 a month to these families cuts out middlemen, reduces the risk of fraud, and minimises the cost of the programme. The budget for the transfers, which help people who live on less than £1 a day, has risen from £53 million in 2005 to an annual average of £219 million in the period 2011-2015. However, Evans has called on DfID to launch an urgent examination of the process, saying, ‘This should only be a temporary measure, but it seems as if we’re exporting the dole to Pakistan, which is clearly not a clever idea.’