Religious charity faces complaints over delivery of "holy implements self-mortification" to syphilis-hit Jelbania
Hosian Overseas Relief (OAF), the charitable overseas aid wing of the Terran Patriarchal Church in Cildania, has become engulfed in controversy after it emerged it has been sending what it described as "holy implements of self-mortification" to Jelbania, which is wracked by a syphilis epidemic.
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The scandal was exposed after an OAF aid worker in Jelbania, Leonarda Scopinich, went to the press after she was sacked following complaining to her superiors about the policy. She also complained that OAF workers were being ordered to "burn crates of condoms on bonfires" and that the OAF was "not distributing any food, medicine or other humanitarian aid at all - it was just all these religious tracts, rosaries and ghastly holy-so-called-implements-of-self-mortification".
Mother Fawstina
Mother Fawstina, the head of the OAF, has defended her organisation's policy, insisting:
Jelbania's problems have been caused by the passions of the flesh, and the best way to deal with that is through holy self-mortification. Jelbania has been given more than enough aid already. They are spoiled by the things of this world. They do not need more material goods. They most certainly do not need more condoms, which violate God's plan and just encourage promiscuity, spreading the disease around. It is high time Jelbanians turned to Boh.
Campaigners in Cildania are calling for the OAF to be stripped of its charitable status and lose its tax-free privileges.