When Raymond Khaled John Al-Hajana, a 12-year-old refugee from Sudan, was ready to start school in Egypt in 2016, he did not have enough education to go to class with youth his own age.
Instead, he needed to learn skills and information that children are taught in early primary grades.
Like many Sudanese refugees who had lost years of schooling to war and conflict, he was just too old to start his education in Egyptian schools.
But in Egypt, St. Raphael Center for Basic and Secondary Education, with support from MCC, provides a rare opportunity for Al-Hajana and other Sudanese students to catch up.
 
MCC - Relief, development, and peace in the name of Christ
https://mcccanada.ca/stories/forced-home-still-learning

AMCC has been supporting local interfaith partner ACCORD – a community maternal and child health program which began in 2018, adapting a care group model of women’s support groups that MCC had started using in Kenya, Tanzania and Somalia.
 
The project grew rapidly. It now covers 37 villages and reaches 17,003 participants in Burkina Faso, primarily through twice-monthly meetings of 330 mothers’ care groups.
 
MCC - Relief, development, and peace in the name of Christ
https://mcc.org/stories/saving-babies-lives-mending-relationships​

We at MCC Thrift are so grateful that 1,898 people took the Thrift First pledge this year. If each participant thrifted just five items (instead of buying them new), then together we saved:

• 9,490 pieces of clothing from the landfill
• enough water to fill two Olympic sized swimming pools
• the carbon emissions equivalent to driving from Vancouver to Montreal and back – 114 times

 
Thank you for supporting MCC Thrift over the past year. Whether you shopped, donated, volunteered or participated in another way, we're grateful to have you part of our community. Wishing you a Happy New Year!
​https://mcccanada.ca/sites/mcccanada.ca/files/media/common/documents/yourthriftguide04092021final.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Thrift_Consumer_eNewsletter_December_2021_CA&utm_content=Thrift_Consumer_eNewsletter_December_2021_CA+CID_0e49e1e2afe530ae84d82beb65feb7d0&utm_source=CM&utm_term=download%20this%20free%20guide%20full%20of%20tips
 
(Note from Jan: On Tuesday at the MCC Thrift Store on Grantham, our daughter Anna found a record she’s been looking for, for years!)

That was the buzz around the town of Princeton, B.C. in early December when the first 16 Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers arrived to help residents hard-hit by flooding in mid-November.
People in the town are “so exhausted,” said Princeton mayor Spencer Coyne. But knowing help was arriving put “a glimmer of hope in their eyes.”
The volunteers, who came from B.C., Alberta and Manitoba, spent a week helping residents pump out water, muck out basements and dispose of damaged items. 
As he drove around town, seeing the MDS vehicles “made me smile,” Coyne said. “I was grinning ear to ear.”
 
MDS: Responding in Christian love to those affected by disasters
https://mds.org/story/the-mennonites-are-coming/

This Advent season, we issue an invitation to celebrate the role of civil society — churches, voluntary citizens’ groups and other non-profit organizations — by joining MCC in encouraging our governments to protect and support their important work.
 
In a world of violence and injustice, living into hope is a faithful, courageous witness. For over 100 years, MCC has witnessed and walked alongside churches and grassroots organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North America who have modelled speaking out against violence and defending hope in the midst of injustice. In these contexts, hope is strong and audacious, radically demonstrating the upside-down order Jesus embodied: a Kingdom where children lead (Isaiah 11:6), the dead live (Matthew 28:6), the poor in spirit are blessed (Matthew 5:3) and the captives are set free (Luke 4:18). It is an Advent hope, an upside-down hope of waiting for and living into the Kingdom of God.
 
MCC - Relief, development, and peace in the name of Christ
 
https://mcccanada.ca/stories/defending-hope-midst-oppression

Two years ago, MCC launched Undercurrents, its first podcast telling in-depth stories from our program participants, staff, and partners in Ontario.
 
Episode 10 is about how and why MCC’s relief materials are created as gifts and the incredible story of how one such handmade item changed the life of a young teenager in a refugee camp over forty years ago. 
 
“All of the items that we’re sending are gifts. And when gift-giving, we want to always give our best.” - Jon Lebold, Material Resources Coordinator, Ontario
 
Listen to Episode 10: “Giving Gifts/Receiving Gifts” at https://anchor.fm/undercurrents/episodes/Ep-10-Giving-giftsreceiving-gifts-e18nk19
 
MCC - Relief, development, and peace in the name of Christ​

Lucienne lives in a rural community in Chad. She lost two of her seven children to illness. Whatever food she can grow is never enough, and her children aren't getting the nutrients they need to stay healthy. There is no money to buy extra food, let alone send them to school or pay for doctor's visits.
 
One of the best ways you and I can share the hope of Christ is by helping people like Lucienne create an income for themselves by providing resources like chickens, goats, pigs—even fish! For just $13, you can give somebody like Lucienne a brood of chickens—a gift that will change everything.
 
With meat and eggs to eat, her children can thrive. And when the chickens begin to multiply, Lucienne can sell them to meet her family's other needs. With just a little bit of help, Lucienne can become completely self-reliant.
 
This is the life-changing impact your love can have this Christmas if you choose to support MCC's vital agricultural work today.
 
MCC - Relief, development, and peace in the name of Christ
https://donation.mcccanada.ca/hvd/?where=e211102hvd

For the foodie in your life, a gift of $25 can help farmers like Joyce Ngumbao and her husband Pius Kisumo in Kenya to increase their harvests and share festive meals with their neighbours now and throughout the year. Methokoi is a traditional dish of corn, beans and greens! Here is an easy recipe. https://cookpad.com/in/recipes/2288231-muthokoi
 
MCC - Relief, development, and peace in the name of Christ
https://mcccanada.ca/christmas#categories[]=Food%20and%20nutrition
​

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada is proud to announce it has been named by Charity Intelligence as one of the top 10 international impact charities for 2021.
 
"There are many international charities doing critical work to support vulnerable people around the world so we’re grateful to be recognized in this way," says Rick Cober Bauman, executive director for MCC Canada. "Many people are choosing to put their trust in MCC and to support their global neighbours through our work. We take seriously the responsibility of stewarding donor’s gifts.”
 
Working with more than 380 local partners in 47 countries, MCC has supported relief, development and peace for more than a century.
 
MCC - Relief, development, and peace in the name of Christ
https://mcccanada.ca/stories/mcc-canada-named-one-top-10-international-impact-charities