MCC ships aid valued at more than $1 million to Mozambique; agency's warehouses are depleted

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 18 March 2000

AKRON, Pa. — Over the next week Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) will ship comforters, combination health/school kits and used clothing valued at more than $1.45 million Cdn./$1 million U.S. to Mozambique flood victims. The shipment has emptied MCC material resource centers.

Heavy rains throughout February and a cyclone on February 22 have flooded Mozambique, one of the world's poorest countries. Mozambique's government says more than 900,000 people have been affected — lives have been lost, homes destroyed and crops washed away.

MCC is spending an additional $433,455 Cdn./$298,000 U.S. to buy 20,000 blankets and 5,000 "survival kits" in southern Africa, which will be distributed immediately. The survival kits contain cooking supplies — such as pots, spoons, plates, mugs — as well as soap and a bucket.

"Many people are still in camps or gathered in elevated places but they are eager to go back home, although they may have nothing to return to. They want to see what the damage has been and start rebuilding their lives," says Tesfa Dalellew, co-director of MCC's Africa programs. "It's important to get the relief items to people now; it will be much more difficult after they are scattered throughout the countryside."

MCC needs funds to pay for shipping costs and for the relief items purchased in Africa. For example, the survival kits for families cost about $56 Cdn./$38 U.S. MCC is also making plans to help provide seeds and tools in time for farmers to plant crops in August. Checks, marked "Mozambique flood relief," or project #5627-2000, can be mailed to any MCC office.

In all these efforts, MCC's partner is the Christian Council of Mozambique. MCC was one of the first international agencies to respond to the flooding in February with $33,000 Cdn./$22,000 U.S. that was used to buy and distribute relief items. A portion of the money went to help people in Marracuene, a village near the capital, to rebuild their homes.

MCC worker Michelle Janzen, with her husband, James Kornelsen, is coordinating MCC's relief work in Mozambique. On March 9 she reported from Marracuene: "We found a number of families, many of them fishing families, who had lost everything they had — houses, fishing boats, household items." She saw numerous houses rebuilt with MCC funds. Most were complete, except for roofs, as corrugated metal sheets had not yet been shipped to the area. In the meantime, people are sleeping in tents.

Janzen and Kornelsen are from Winnipeg, Man. They are affiliated with Grain of Wheat Church Community in Winnipeg and with Pineridge Fellowship Chapel in Hudson Bay, Sask.

To meet upcoming requests, MCC needs comforters, school kits and more. Shipments to Mozambique have emptied MCC warehouses, leaving staff concerned that they might have to postpone future shipments. Ten shipments to Russia, Ukraine, North Korea and Iraq are planned for April, but MCC's inventory is too low to fill the orders.

"In the case of Mozambique, workers and partners on the ground said they needed relief supplies immediately. We didn't have enough comforters but the Lutherans offered to share some so we were able to send the requested number," says Brenda Wagner, MCC Constituency Ministries director. "But now we have very few comforters left."

MCC is also very low on school kits as well as sewing and health kits and sheets. For information about needs, contact your nearest MCC office.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org