Last month, Church leaders in the East-Central African nation appealed for support to rescue the people affected by floods that continue to wreak havoc in the five states of the nine-year old country.
“We the South Sudan Council of Churches leaders, working within these communities, appeal for humanitarian assistance to be expedited to communities currently without humanitarian assistance,” SSCC officials appealed in their collective letter issued November 2.
In the December 4 interview with ACI Africa, Fr. Rayappan said that the flood victims “were occupying school and Church premises and now they have started settling near the roadsides using the non-food items we gave them and somewhat they are okay.”
The Indian-born Missionary Cleric highlighted items, which have been given to the flood victims saying, “In all the five villages, we are distributing milk powder from lay missionaries from Italy to rescue the situation of pregnant mothers, children and the elderly as a response to the flood coming from the Nile River.”
He added, “St. Francis of Assisi Parish and the MMI missionaries have appealed to several well-wishers since floods started in June 2020, and with the help of Red Cross, we have distributed non-food items for 1,000 families in all their five villages.”
“Red Cross gave each household 4 blankets, 4 buckets, 4 mats, 2 plastic carpets, 5 bathing soaps, 5 washing soaps, and 5 mosquito nets,” the Cleric told ACI Africa December 4.
The member of MMI acknowledged the contributions of some NGOs in helping the flood victims saying, “We got the food items from Ajai industries under Relief Line Africa because they are celebrating the Golden Jubilee of their Founder, the Birthday of their Founder.”
“In all the African countries, in which they are operating, they have been asked to distribute food to at least 1000 families; they decided to give food to the needy people in my parish, donating food for around 200 families,” Fr. Rayappan said in reference to Indian Relief Line Africa
He added, “As a flood response from us we have also done other activities like conduction of medical camps in all the five villages with the help of our DMI (Daughters of Mary Immaculate) Sisters distributing baby kits for all the breastfeeding children.”
“We conducted medical camps with the help of DMI Sisters in all the five villages and also our Indian Embassy has contributed medicine for conducting medical camps,” he said and continued, “They were diagnosing the sickness of malaria, typhoid and provide some basic medicines.”
