You, too, can help out the MCC

The Mennonite Central Committee offices are located at 134 Plaza Dr. Their Ten Thousand Villages store is in the same building. Recently I was fortunate to be given a tour of the office and warehouse area.

The organization’s motto is "Working for change" in order "to bring justice through peaceful acts of compassion. Too often the root causes of hunger and disease lie in the absence of justice."

When there is a crisis in the world, MCC works to deliver food, medicines and emergency medical treatment, and to help find and maintain safe water supplies.

Once those needs are looked after, the focus shifts to education, sustainable food production, and improved access to medical care.

MCC suggest three projects that are simple to do but which make a huge impact on the lives of their recipients. They are making comforters or blankets (the words are used interchangeably), and putting together relief and hygiene kits.

You do not need to be Mennonite to participate.

These items are sent to hospitals, refugee camps, orphanages and disaster areas around the world. MCC works through local people to help the assistance get to these destinations.

I was startled to learn that in any given year, tens of thousands of comforters/blankets are given out to those in need. In MCC’s 2016-17 fiscal year, 51,062 were provided in areas of conflict and natural disasters such as Syria, Ukraine, and Nepal.

If you want to make a comforter, specific instructions as to size, knotting cotton, spacing of the knots, etc., are provided. Children and youth can be involved by drawing pictures on the comforter top. The type of paint and materials to use are listed.  

The instructions on making hygiene kits are clear. Items are to be new and in original packaging. Only four items are required: an adult toothbrush, a bar of soap 90 grams or larger, a good quality fingernail clipper, and a dark hand towel of a certain size.

These items are put in a "useful double-drawstring cloth bag" that you can make yourself or request from MCC. Another option is to have MCC put the items into the bag for you.

The last project is a relief kit. These kits have nine items, some of which are multiple in number.

In recent years, hygiene or relief kits have been given out in Jordan, Haiti, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Serbia, El Salvador, Syria and Ethiopia.

These three projects are only part of how MCC gives compassionate assistance where needed.
To learn more, visit www.mcccanada.ca

Jeannette Timmerman is a community correspondent for Richmond West.