Providing food and care to help: Donations made for the Corona Fund were immediately passed on to destitute Kolping Families all over the world – and this help often arrived just on time to mitigate hunger and reduce misery.
We have just received news from Sri Lanka: The majority of the 450 Kolping members in the diocese of Colombo work on tea and caoutchouc plantations and they had no work and no income due to the lockdown. To help the families survive, KOLPING Sri Lanka used donations from the Corona Fund to buy and distribute staples such as rice, sugar, tea, noodles, fish, cookies but also soap. In the diocese of Batticaloa 138 members of 8 Kolping Families were also given foodstuffs. Most of them are day laborers who no longer earned any money because they were not allowed to leave their homes. Financial aid from the Corona Fund helped to reduce hardships. The Kolping Families are extremely grateful to all donors for their help!
In Kenya, the Kolping Vocational Training Centre in Kilimambogo reopened again. Students who were in their final year were able to take their final exams, some other students were able to return to school. Children in other countries such as Argentina have missed classes. Many students had to (and some of them still have to) cope with online classes and most of them are many months behind in the curriculum. Wherever it is possible to meet in person, Kolping Families give students private tuition to help them catch up at school. Kolping organizations try very hard to stay connected with their members, either online, by phone or – if possible – in person because many Kolping members have great fears and anxieties and they suffer psychologically from the impact of the pandemic. Experiencing community spirit makes it easier for them to cope in such exceptional circumstances.
