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"This year, I have not got any presents for Christmas as the pandemic has rendered my father unemployed," said the Christian boy, who slaved through the week to earn some money for buying a shirt.
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Johnny's story is similar to so many other children who live in the upazila's tribal villages of Udayagiri and Jamtali. Of a Christian population of 7-8 thousand in the upazila, some 2,000 live in these two villages.
Isha Topp and Barsha Minji, two girls, said they too would celebrate this Christmas without new clothes and dolls. "Our families hardly manage two square meals a day. We just can't afford to celebrate Christmas," they said.
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Indeed, Covid has robbed many people of their livelihoods in these two villages.
“For the past six to seven months, I am jobless. I support my family by doing menial jobs and that too on some days of the week. Forget shopping for Christmas, my only worry is how am I going to feed my family," said Sushil, a middle-aged unemployed man.
Not only Sunil, hundreds of people in the upazila's other villages -- Jamtali, Udayagiri, Chandipur, Dakshin Basudebpur and Mongla Christian -- are suffering. Neither they have jobs nor access to social security to tide over the crisis.
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