Mennonite Central Committee releases federal election guide
In the lead up to the federal election, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has released an election guide to help people have conversations with their candidates and communities. The guide is available online now on MCC’s website. “We believe that governments should maintain a just and peaceful social order,” says Bekah Sears, policy analyst and government…
MCC responds to bombing in Gaza
Nighttime was the hardest for Mahmoud Alhalimi. With the electricity cut and bombs falling, the hours were dark and loud, as he tried in vain to help his two young children fall asleep. “They asked me all the time, ‘What are these sounds? Are they coming to our home?’” he says of their time during…
One piece at a time
There was no peace in Anju Shaw’s life. For 20 years, she endured constant abuse and neglect at the hands of her husband and then her husband’s parents. She had no support, no one to speak for her or listen to her. She didn’t think the police would care about her—if they believed her at…
Watch: 100 years of MCC in Europe
A video published on YouTube last month chronicles Mennonite Central Committee’s 100-year history in Europe. The 11-minute video, which you can watch below, tells the MCC story, beginning with its first beneficiaries: refugees and families affected by war and famine in southern Russia in 1920. Toward the end of the video, MCC area directors James…
New MCC dignity kits offer support for vulnerable women and girls
The newest Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) resource kit will support vulnerable women and girls with dignity. The new dignity kit contains hygiene and sanitary items tailored for women and girls who don’t have ready access to the items they need, including eco-friendly, washable menstrual pads and liners. The first shipments of the dignity kits have…
Practising restorative justice in a nightgown
My wife and I live in a triplex in the Montréal borough of Hochelaga, in the eastern part of the island. One of our sons, who does not live with us, usually leaves his bicycle, as well as his son’s smaller one, locked to our front porch when they visit us. The other night, it…
Boxes of food help people affected by Beirut explosion
Eight of Alice Joubanian’s grandchildren—all under eight years old—lived with her and her daughter in a Beirut camp for Armenian refugees when a massive explosion of ammonium nitrate rocked the city on Aug. 4, 2020. As the sound and power of the explosion destroyed buildings and killed about 200 people, Joubanian’s daughter, Maria Berberian, ran…
MCC initiates research into historical connections with National Socialism
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has initiated research into how national socialism (Nazism) shaped the contexts in Europe and Paraguay where MCC operated in the 1930s and ’40s, and how, at the time, MCC engaged with the German National Socialist government and worked to resettle Mennonite refugees from the Soviet Union. At MCC’s invitation, 11 academic…
MCC responds to double hurricanes
After two hurricanes in two weeks flooded several countries in Central America twice, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is providing emergency food and supplies and making longer-term plans to help with recovery. Hurricane Eta made landfall in Nicaragua on Nov. 3, and Hurricane Iota, the strongest storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, followed on Nov.…
MCC connects with supporters through digital media
“One bar of soap isn’t just a drop in the ocean of need. The ripples keep moving out in ways we may not even be able to count.” Sophia Bezoplenko, who coordinates material resources for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Winnipeg, insists that “the small things are not as small as we think.” The reality…
