Amai in Sarhadi Lutheran Church in Mardan

Funkor Childart center distributed Amai gifts to children in St. Paul Lutheran Church in Mardan, which was burnt down by religious extremists on 21st September 2012.

In the past , we visited this church in 2009, with members of Civil Society Islamabad, Sara Mahmood, Ghazala Minallah and a young student Tajreen Midhat, to help the Internally Displaced Christians. The objective was to personally deliver the donations raised by friends and family of Tahira Abdullah, Humaira Masihuddin and Foqia Sadik Khan. Funkor distributed Sadako’s Prayer books and organised painting session with the traumatized children. The children from Christian and Hindu families had fled their homes from Swat, Buner, and other places where the army operation had started against the terrorists. On the International Day of Peace this place of worship was was burnt down. 

We wanted to express our grief and sorrow with Bishop Peter Majeed . The soft spoken Bishop was devastated, a resident of Mardan he speaks Pashto fluently. It was heart wrenching looking at young Tabeel, Sneha and Abraham among the wreckage of their sacred space. They seemed so vulnerable. With tears in his eyes, Father Ghulam Masih told us how his 19 year old son was dragged by the mob to be killed but it was the police at the cost of being beaten up badly themselves, saved the young Christian boy.

Maham Ali a student of Bahria University had raised funds for the Mardan Church with donations from Pakistanis like Amna Paracha,  Ayesha Ijaz Khan,Osman Waheed Khalid,Sharmeen Ali, Neelofur Tiwana, Sana Mahmud and Amna Iqbal. Maham had previously raised funds for Pervez Masih Shaheed, the Christian janitor of Islamic University who was killed by stopping suicide bomber from entering the cafeteria and in the process saving the lives of 200 lives of young students. Maham mobilized her young friends to help the flood victims in 2010 as well.

Amai gifts were distributed by Maham Ali among the children.