Seventh-day Adventists Ingathering Campaign begins tomorrow

A home being constructed by the Seventh Day Adventist Church for a family at Amelia’s Ward, Linden.
A home being constructed by the Seventh Day Adventist Church for a family at Amelia’s Ward, Linden.

Seventh-day Adventists across the country will from tomorrow start what is known as the church’s annual ‘Ingathering Campaign.’

The church describes the campaign as a community service outreach during which it solicits funds from the community to help with its humanitarian programmes.

According to a press release from the church, last year it spent more than $55.3 million in humanitarian assistance, which included the constructions of homes, school feeding programmes and other forms of assistance.     

Director of Community Service of the Guyana Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Pastor Jumoul Sancho, in appealing for support of tomorrow’s campaign, said in the release: “Your generous contributions in the past have enabled us to reach down and lift thousands of persons throughout Guyana in the past.”

The pastor revealed that during 2017, the church built and renovated ten houses for homeless persons and a few bus sheds in several communities.

“Our 223 congregations in Guyana have given out more than 6,000 food hampers to the needy; 30 churches conducted weekly feeding programmes for school children and the elderly; moreover, we have had free health fairs conducted in several communities,” Pastor Sancho was quoted in the release as saying. He added, “Many of our churches have also offered relief to fire victims, as well as medical, education, transportation and welfare assistance.”

According to the press release, the expenditure of the funds solicited last year included, $28.8 million on 30 weekly feeding programmes, $15.3 million on over 10,000 distributed food hampers, $6 million on the building and renovation of ten houses, and $1.8 million in relief assistance for fire victims.