ASIA/BANGLADESH - Missionaries escorted, but social work continues

Dinajpur (Agenzia Fides) - "After the attack against PIME missionary Father Piero Parolari, the police patrol the missions in Dinajpur, and we can go out only with an escort. It is a situation that makes you feel uncomfortable, and we hope it does not last long", says to Agenzia Fides Father Franco Cagnasso, PIME missionary in Bangladesh.
"This episode is added to others which are similar, perhaps caused by the intention of destabilizing the government affecting foreigners living in Bangladesh. It is part of a tense and deteriorated situation. The year began with three terrible months, full of violence across the Country, of fear, of people burned alive in buses and trucks, for having dared to challenge the absurd block proclaimed by the opposition", recalls the missionary.
"Then, gradually, violence calmed down, which allowed to return to a normal life" also for missionaries and religious.
"At the Assistance Center in Rajshahi - says Fr. Cagnasso, tracing the social work carried out by PIME - the sick have started to come again, while in Snehanir, in the 'House of tenderness', there are about 30 boys and girls with limb problems and now 15 children with hearing and sight problems have been added".
Furthermore, "the school in the slums of Dhaka has made great progress: by using old computers donated by schools for foreigners, computer courses are organized for fifth grade girls, with excellent academic results", he notes.
"The hostel for boys and girls 'Hill Child Home', in the south of the country – he continues - has inaugurated two dormitories, female and male. Unfortunately tension remains among the aborigines, such as the young people present, and Bangladeshis, due to land disputes. The tense situation offers the authorities an excuse to deny foreigners to enter those areas".
Father Cagnasso has concluded his office as Superior of PIME missionaries in Bangladesh, carried out for four years, and returns to carrying out pastoral service in a parish in Dhaka, where they he will deal with the formation of a group of college students who show interest in becoming missionaries. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 09/12/2015)

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