Two countries, one mission on the Korean Peninsula
It has been more than 60 years since the ceasefire that ended the Korean War, but to this day North Korea and South Korea do not have an official peace, and the divide remains great. In the last months of 2018, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada executive director Rick Cober Bauman and MCC U.S. executive…
MCC cuts Canadian programs to focus on advocacy
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada is cutting about $350,000 from its Indigenous Neighbours, Restorative Justice and Low German programs. The changes are driven by a decrease in thrift store income, a shift to more international spending, and a decision to “go deeper” rather than wider. Rick Cober Bauman, MCC Canada’s executive director, says the thrift…
How steam wells work to relieve droughts in Ethiopia
In parts of the world where the effects of climate change are severe and rains are dangerously infrequent, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is supporting innovative projects to improve access to water. In the Afar region of Northern Ethiopia, MCC supported the Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APDA) to build and maintain a steam well benefitting 60…
North Korean farmers visit Manitoba, build relationships
In those first few minutes after arriving at Syl’s Restaurant in Carman, members of a delegation from North Korea sit at the edge of the outdoor eating area, where they see local resident Rene McFarlane at a picnic table with her son Lane. The visitors move toward McFarlane and, with the help of a translator,…
MCC supports vulnerable people on the move
Daniel (a pseudonym, for security reasons) doesn’t have just one reason for leaving his daughter, 8, and parents in Honduras. He has many reasons for joining a caravan of thousands of migrants walking toward the U.S. border with Mexico. “I was forced to leave because there weren’t jobs or opportunities, plus the insecurity and violence.…
Congratulations, Simon Eng
Every Tuesday, the bell at the front desk of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Alberta headquarters in Calgary dings incessantly, whether a receptionist is sitting there or not. “Hi, Simon!” someone says, and Simon wanders off to get a coffee and a snack, and then he ambles down the hall to the material resources warehouse.…
‘Everything was getting better’
Before 2008, Victoria Mamani Sirpa had only ever cooked with four vegetables: carrots, chard, celery and onions. That soon changed after she and her family built a huerta (greenhouse) on their property with the help of Fundación Communidad y Axión (Community and Action Foundation), a Mennonite Central Committee partner that is working to improve access…
An exciting opportunity
Annalee Giesbrecht is getting more than she bargained for when she agreed to serve with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)—and she wouldn’t have it any other way. When she arrived in Haiti to work with the relief organization, she planned to be away from Canada for a year. A few months later, however, she was offered…
Equipping leaders at home and around the world
People often say that young people are the future. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is working with partners in Canada, the United States and around the world to invest in opportunities for young people to serve. It is committed to nurturing and developing the leadership skills of a new generation, with a focus on Anabaptist values…
To serve and to give
I was born in Santander in north-central Colombia. My husband and I married when he was 17 and I was 15, and we decided to come to Bogotá to look for a better life. In about 2005, Iglesia Cristiana Hermanos Menonitas El Progreso had an evangelism campaign, and my husband went. That’s how I got…
