Goal: To collect money in the United States to provide aid to suffering/struggling Christians in a rural community, Christian Colony Gojra, in Pakistan

Background: Christians in Pakistan represent a tiny minority. Pakistan is overwhelmingly Muslim (more than 95%), while Christians represent about 2-3%. Christians in Pakistan experience race, religion and class discrimination. While there are some jobs available, their poor access to education locks them out of those jobs. Most Christians work in factories like brick lines. Both men and women and even entire families work these subsistence jobs. Their wages are so poor that they cannot afford 3 meals a day. Any setbacks like illnesses put them at more significant danger of debt, default and even death.

The local Christians have been exploited by organizations and even mission groups. Their experience is that people enter their villages, take pictures that demonstrate the need—there are obvious hunger, bad health and poor clothing that can be captured—and then leave. They assume that these organizations leverage the pictures and raise money, just not for their villages.

At the same time, a US dollar goes a long way in rural villages of Pakistan. We estimate that packages of nutritious staple food items that we put together will cost $30-40 for a family of four. Good Shepherd's aim is to collect money in the United States to provide aid to suffering/struggling Christians in a rural community, Christian Colony Gojra, in Pakistan, through Ilyas Hameed, who will receive and dispense the aid. Shahbaz and Amber Hameed are the United States representatives of this effort.