Media Release
Mangaluru, Oct 13: Pavur is a unique parish in the diocese, here, about 30 km south of the city and geographically it is part of Kerala state. It is unique, because it is the only parish where liturgical language and the native language of people is Tulu. Most of the people belong to the scheduled tribe called Koragas.
These people are badly hit due to economic slowdown during the time of COVID-19. In fact, even now, there is section 144 imposed by the state government to curtail the pandemic. COVID cases in the state and in the district are on the rise.
Since the majority of these people are daily wage workers, many of them lost their jobs due to lockdown. Even now, the economy is sluggish and many of these casual workers are jobless.
CODP identified 150 families from this area with the help of the parish priest Fr Varghese. The identified people are not only Christians but also non-Christians.
On Sunday, Fr Oswald Monteiro, the director of CODP gave an awareness talk on COVID-19 soon after the Sunday services. He stressed on precautionary measures like wearing masks, maintaining a safe distance, washing hands regularly, avoiding crowds and congested places, gargling with salt water etc. He informed the participants that an agency called Manos Unidas from Spain had donated some money for this relief work and after the distribution at Ullal Hoige and Pakshikere, Pavur is the last place to get relief from that source. Manos Unidas means 'Hands of unity', which is a group of volunteers who have generously helped several countries and thus shown their solidarity with the poor of the world.
After the talk, each family was given a food kit, sanitizers, masks, and a free book on environment conservation called 'Parisara -Devara Vara'.
Later, one of the parishioners responded, “It is precisely during this time we needed some relief most because we still do not have earnings and you have provided it to us. We are grateful to you and please convey our thanks to the donors of Manos Unidas.”
The people were overjoyed to take home big packets of provisions.
A lot of volunteers from Pavur along with Praveen and his wife Tejaswini extended voluntary service to register names, packaging and setting discipline.