The image above shows girls at a sewing school in Pakistan
On Sunday, March 15, two churches in Yuhanabad, near the city of Lahore, were targeted by bomb attacks that killed 15 people and injured many more. Yuhanabad is populated almost entirely by Christians and there are many churches. Both St. John's Church and Christ Church were hit in what is tentatively described as a coordinated suicide attack.
Those who were present and survived describe horrific scenes of severed limbs, and after a short time, the Christians from Yuhanabad took to the main Ferozepur Road and blocked all traffic, and in several other places, both in Lahore and other cities, people gathered to demonstrate against the lack of protection for Christians and their churches. The day after the attack, Christian schools across Pakistan closed their doors, showing solidarity in mourning for those killed. Both church leaders and the government condemned the attack.
The Secretary General of the Danish European Mission says: "I myself have passed by the places where the bombings took place many times". They are very close to the school that the Danish European Mission built in a local partnership with funds from DANIDA, administered by the Danish Mission Council's Development Department.
Pakistan's Christians have experienced many horrific attacks over the past 20 years where entire neighborhoods have been laid waste by enraged Muslims, but Christians continue to try to do good to their Muslim neighbors. For example, Danish European Mission donors have secured the establishment of sewing schools in an area north of Lahore, where Christians also offer self-help assistance to poor Muslims, as well as providing poor Christian children from a remote rural area with schooling in a safe environment at a Christian school and school hostel.
It costs around DKK 300 to ensure that a vulnerable woman can attend a sewing school and get help to become self-sufficient.
