MCC and its partners in Burundi are working together to respond to the immense needs in the country after torrential rainfall and a series of floods and landslides have displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
 
Whole villages have been submerged or leveled by landslides. More than 300,000 people are in desperate need of relief. Nearly 90% of Burundians make their living as subsistence farmers, and many have lost their entire livelihoods as their farmland is violently washed away.
 
MCC is responding to the immense need in Burundi in a joint effort with many of its partners in the region. Working with partners MCC has begun its emergency relief response for 500 affected families. Each family will receive 20 kgs of rice, 10 kgs of beans, a bucket, a package of sanitary pads (where needed), a carton of soap and a flashlight with batteries.
 
Read the whole story at https://mcc.org/our-stories/mcc-responds-disastrous-floods-burundi-local-partners
 
MCC: Relief, development and peace in the name of Christ

Congratulations to our incredible partner, The Raw Carrot, on celebrating 10 amazing years of cooking up delicious, handcrafted gourmet soups!
We are so proud to be part of your journey and mission. The Raw Carrot is more than just a soup maker; it’s a beacon of hope and opportunity. By empowering individuals who face barriers to traditional employment, The Raw Carrot offers the dignity of work and the chance to secure livelihoods by provide meaningful employment to adults on social assistance, turning simple ingredients into gourmet masterpieces.
Here's to a decade of changing lives, one bowl at a time, and to many more years of impactful and inspiring work. Cheers to The Raw Carrot and the amazing team behind it!
https://therawcarrot.com/
 
(Note from Jan: These soups make great gifts!)
 
MCC: Relief, development and peace in the name of Christ

First Steps is a Christian organization that seeks to prevent and alleviate childhood malnutrition in North Korea through our programs which provide essential nutrients to young children, babies, pregnant, and lactating mothers. We are motivated by our faith to share God’s love by working with the government to improve the health and prospects of women and children in the DPRK. First Steps has the rare and privileged opportunity of continuing our humanitarian aid in the DPRK over many years and through many challenges.
 
First Steps’ programs operate in 10 areas across four provinces and one district. Learn more at https://www.firststepscanada.org/
 
MCC: Relief, development and peace in the name of Christ

While students from Lancaster Mennonite (LM) School were packing MCC school kits during World Changer Week in March, Rebecca Burkholder, MCC U.S. director of International Program, was visiting schools in Chad that would receive school kits  
“I visited three schools in the North Kanem area, which is in the Sahel region, near the Sahara Desert,” Burkholder said. “The children walk to school. Some may come by donkey or even camel.”
The students were very engaged in their education, said Burkholder, who had come to Chad to see MCC’s projects and to support and encourage MCC’s staff and partners.
The school kits, which include a drawstring bag, paper notebooks, pencils, pencil sharpener, pens, ruler, eraser and colored pencils, are important because these educational supplies are hard to find in Chad, and they are too expensive for parents to purchase locally, Burkholder said.
Lancaster Mennonite students in first, second, third and fifth grades helped pack the school supplies in cloth drawstring bags, which are commonly reused as backpacks.
More than 450 school kits were assembled.
https://mcc.org/our-stories/connecting-students-chad-and-pennsylvania
 
MCC: Relief, development and peace in the name of Christ

This spring – amid unimaginable destruction in Gaza and as Palestinians mark the 76th anniversary of what is known in Arabic as the Nakba, or Catastrophe  – we invite you on a photographic journey through the history of MCC’s work in this region. See https://mcc.org/our-stories/marking-75-years-mcc-palestine-and-israel
 
Behind these images are countless lives and stories. May we hold this history and the 75 years of MCC’s service in our hearts as we continue to live into MCC’s mission of working for peace and justice. And may we ask how what we see and learn here can shape us to pray, to act, to give, to serve.
 
(Primary source: Alain Epp Weaver and Sonia K. Weaver, Salt and Sign: Mennonite Central Committee in Palestine 1949-1999)
 
MCC – Relief, development, and peace – in the name of Christ.

Jean Bosco Nsanzimana was used to getting food from the market — “even though I was a farmer,” he says.
Practices like intensive tilling had left his land, in the Kayonza District of Rwanda’s Eastern Province, depleted and unable to produce much food. And in this region of Rwanda — hotter and lower-lying than much of the country — changing weather patterns have brought additional challenges.
… Conservation agriculture training, provided through MCC partner Peace and Development Network (PDN), is helping these farmers, and others throughout Rwanda, find steadiness amid the uncertainty that climate change brings.
Now, when growing conditions are right, these farmers can grow enough to sustain their families, with extra to sell. Even when conditions are subpar, farmers who follow conservation agriculture practices get at least some crops.
https://mcc.org/our-stories/when-communities-grow-together
 
MCC – Relief, development, and peace – in the name of Christ.

Hena Khatun has a courtyard full of reasons to believe that she will be able to feed and care for her daughter and sickly husband, despite the floodwater from the nearby Jamuna River that threatens to cover the land where she lives.
 
Staff from MCC partner Maitree Palli Unnayan Sangathon (MPUS) taught her to look up. The local NGO showed her techniques they’d learned from MCC’s agricultural team in Bangladesh.
 
Now Khatun has eggplant, chiles and cabbage growing in sacks that sit on the ascending shelves of an 8-foot-tall, triangular bamboo structure, called a 3D garden. More eggplant grows in hanging bags, which are out of reach of rising water and can be moved if necessary. Bottle gourds, a favorite ingredient in Bengali cooking, grow on vines that spread across a bamboo canopy. Read more about this project at https://mcc.org/our-stories/above-floodwaters
 
MCC – Relief, development, and peace – in the name of Christ.

MCC continues to work with our partners on the ground to provide essential emergency relief to families in Gaza. As of the end of March, 550 families have received food kits that include rice, flour, oil and canned beans and vegetables through distributions
 
Qusai*, 12, and Judy*, 11, volunteer with MCC's partner Al-Najd in their work to support families. With no school to attend, they help organize and distribute food boxes for families in Gaza alongside their parents, who are staff at Al-Najd.
https://mcc.org/our-stories/food-distribution-gaza-continues-under-famine-conditions
 
Mennonite Central Committee: Relief, development and peace in the name of Christ

Every day, when Mr. Khong awakens in Myanmar, he has two challenges: One, avoid being captured, conscripted or killed by the military junta that is struggling to hold onto its power to govern. Two, get food to people who have fled to remote mountainous areas of the country to avoid the reaches of the junta.
 
“The donation from MCC has been a miracle to us. And it also inspires us,” he says. “We still believe in God, and we thank God that … we have our faith brothers and sisters like MCC … who are committed to this work.”
 
Read the full story at https://mcc.org/our-stories/being-riskless-not-always-will-god
 
MCC – Relief, development, and peace – in the name of Christ.

Jared Konkle was eight years old when he volunteered with MDS for the first time — at a family project in Sauble Beach, Ontario.
“It was really cool because I got to do it with my whole extended family, including my great grandma. We built a shed and we worked on some other buildings. When I go back to [Silver Lake Mennonite Camp] now, it's cool to see something I built,” said Jared, now 16.
Jared’s grandfather, Nick Hamm, led that project and is gearing up to coordinate the MDS Canada Family Project again this summer. This time at Fraser Lake Camp in Bancroft, Ontario.
Jared’s encouragement to families considering the opportunity, “I would highly recommend this experience to other people as a way to help… and have fun with others at the same time. It was awesomesauce.”
To learn more, visit mds.org/family-program
 
MDS Vision - We strive to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those affected by disasters.