Christian Freedom International (CFI), a major advocacy group, said it will distribute Bibles and participate in relief efforts following "the worst ever fire" in the camps, with over 1,200 homes and one school "being burned to the ground."
CFI said 8,000 "men, women and children" affected by the March 1 blaze were forced to take shelter in makeshift tents made of plastic sheets attached to bamboo poles. "Fire has been a constant threat in Nepal’s refugee camps, where fire-prone thatched huts have caused
several other blazes in the past few years," CFI added.
Reconstruction of the camp could take as long as two months, and the United Nations has reportedly urged the international community to help provide long-term support.
MORE UN CAMPS
The site is one of seven UN-run camps in the region that has helped accommodate over 107,000 refugees for the past 17 years, after ethnic Hindu minorities fled Bhutan to escape what CFI described as "persecution and national laws that stripped them of their citizenship." It is believed there are also Christians in the refugee camps, while an interest in Christianity has been reported.
"I have prayerfully made a plan to conduct outreach programs there in the Goldhap refugee camp," CFI quoted an unidentified Nepalese co-worker as saying, apparently for fear of retributions. "We will preach the Gospel as well as distribute food, clothes, medicine and Bibles."
CFI said, "Proper shelter, latrines and health care are the most prevalent needs for the refugees, and the lack of sanitation in the camp poses an ongoing threat of disease outbreaks."
UNCLEAR SITUATION
It remains unclear when and if the situation of refugees will change following a ballot Monday, March 24 in Bhutan, a tiny and deeply traditional Himalayan kingdom of at least 600,000 people.
Bhutan’s fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, surrendered power and imposed democracy on his subjects before abdicating in favor of his Oxford-educated son in 2006, who called Monday’s ballot. Yet, there are only two political parties, with almost identical manifestoes based on the present government’s latest five-year plan and what people call "His Majesty’s vision."
Both promote Gross National Happiness (GNH), the king’s idea that traditions and the environment should not be sacrificed in the ruthless pursuit of economic growth. The party leaders are drawn from the elite, one the brother of Wangchuck’s four wives, the other a man
closely associated with the idea of GNH. Each party leader served twice as prime minister under royal rule.
There have been incidents of violence as rebel groups have repotedly emerged from refugee camps in the past year and have threatened to disrupt the polls. They detonated three bombs inside Bhutan on Thursday, March 20, injuring a policeman, and eight others this year, with one death, Reuters news agency reported. (BosNewsLife’s MISSION WATCH is a regular look at Christian missionaries living and working in difficult circumstances around the globe, especially in the two-thirds world).
