I would like to thank the Mission Fund for its donation of €2,500, of which €500 are for Mass intentions and €2,000  go towards subsidising biblical and religious material in Santali, the language of the largest tribe in India, the Santals.

I have been in India for the last 60 years and soon after I was ordained priest I began working as a parish priest among the Santals. Santal Parganas is the homeland of the Santals, but forced by poverty, the Santals have migrated to many other northern states in India and settled there.

The Santal Catholics are now spread out in 17 other dioceses and these rely on us for biblical and religious material in Santali. For the last few years I have been put in charge of religious publications.

Last December we printed 10,000 prayer books and 10,000 hymn books. As most of these poor people cannot afford to buy these publications even at cost price, we have to subsidise them, and the donation from the Mission Fund will be used for this purpose.

I would like to encourage the Maltese people to send used stamps and donations to the Mission Fund. Donations may be made online or by direct bank transfer to one of the following accounts: HSBC (Account no. 061 197 448 050); BOV (Account no. 163 007 980 19); APS (Account no. 200 008 207 62); or Banif (Account no. 000 879 631 01). More information is available from the website: www.missionfund.org.mt.