Dhaka, Bangladesh The coronavirus pandemic has meant worsening trouble for nuns and their students across Bangladesh. It is difficult to collect tuition fees from the students. Many of the parents and guardians lost jobs and businesses, and the families are going through financial crisis, Holy Cross Sr. Shikha Laetitia Gomes told Global Sisters Report. Gomes is the principal of Holy Cross College in Dhaka, one of the top colleges in the country for female students. We got tuition fees from 70% of the students. The rest of the students couldn t give it to us.
Although Christians make up less than 1% of the population of this Muslim-majority country, the Catholic Church runs approximately 1,000 schools, 17 colleges and one university. Of those, nuns run around 100 schools, including some colleges. Approximately 80% of the students at these institutions are not Christian.