Global Family program expands to five more countries

Mennonite Central Committee
Friday, 4 May 2001

AKRON, Pa. -- Mennonite Central Committee's (MCC) Global Family program will expand this year to include five new countries: Mexico, Burundi, South Africa, Syria and Ukraine.

Through Global Family sponsorships, MCC constituents currently help thousands of students in 28 countries receive an education. Last year the program set a goal to double sponsorships by 2005.

"We are told that one-third of the world's population is younger than 15, and 85 percent of these young people live in the developing world," said Global Family co-director Kate Myers, citing a recent World Vision report.

Global Family funds support a wide variety of institutions and individuals worldwide: a vocational training school for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, a school for deaf children in Jamaica and more than 1,000 individual students in India. New sponsorships in South Africa will help 14 rural communities purchase supplies, books and furniture for their new preschools and help cover the teachers' salaries.

Program sponsors are also wide-ranging.

Lillie Boese, a retired school teacher in Winnipeg, Man., sponsors numerous children in countries including Zimbabwe, Philippines, India and Brazil. Boese was delighted to learn the program will now include two children's homes in Ukraine, and she signed herself up as a sponsor right away.

"My parents were born in Ukraine," she explains. "Years ago I asked whether (Global Family) had any sponsorships there, but at that time they did not."

An adult Sunday school class at Stumptown (Pa.) Mennonite Church is sponsoring 15-year-old Muritiani, of Tayu, Indonesia, this year. Their gift will pay for the school fees and uniform he needs to attend Bopkri Junior High School, which is run by the Mennonite churches of Indonesia.

Children at Community Mennonite Church, Lancaster, Pa., are likewise sponsoring an Indonesian student through their Sunday school offering.

"Sponsors become involved in many interesting ways," said program co-director Gayle Zacharias. "One fourteen-year old from Ontario recently requested a Global Family sponsorship as a birthday gift. And a married couple sponsors one child for each of their own children."

The annual cost of a Global Family sponsorship is $264 Cdn./ $204 U.S. For information on becoming a sponsor, contact Gayle Zacharias in Canada, (204) 261-6381, or Kate Myers in the United States, 1-888-563-4676. Or check with your nearest MCC office.

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