Desperate call for help

With gratitude, on behalf of the needy people in Ethiopia, I thank all the workers and benefactors of Mission Fund for the donation of €3,000. Most of it is used to support the education of children and students.

Ethiopia risks sliding into another civil war. Photo: Sadik Gulec/Shutterstock.com

As a result of the ethnic war in Ethiopia that has only been partially resolved, the country is facing a very high inflation. The price for basic food items, for transport, for rent, for utilities etc. has tripled; the monthly or daily wages remain the same. Even teachers and nurses earn miserable wages, less than €100 a month and this has to support a whole family.

To make things worse, in order to embellish the city, widen the roads etc., houses, restaurants, clinics, shops and whatever lies in the way of the plan is being demolished, without any compensation given to the owners. So many are being left homeless and jobless.

Therefore, I urge all benefactors to continue supporting the Mission Fund as generously as they have always done, so that we, in turn, can help some of these people. 

The situation at present is desperate. Thanking all again and with a promise of prayers

Sr Carmen Sammut, Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition – Santa Venera

Human birth rate

Concern is periodically expressed that the ‘total fertility rate’ is falling, both in Malta and in many other countries (March 23).

However, men and women are just as capable of reproducing as they have ever been. It is not the fertility of the human species that is falling but the human birth rate. And that is overwhelmingly because of the two factors of mass contraception and abortion, driven, at least in part, by the desire for greater wealth and prosperity.

Alan Cooke – Sliema