|  | |
Previous | Next People & events
Gladys Zuniga with her daughter
MCC News photo by Linda Shelly |
Gladys Zuniga and her family now live in a new house in Holandeza Linda, Honduras, a relocation site funded by Mennonite Central Committee. On Oct. 28, 1998, the village of Masicales, a community of about 155 families, was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Mitch. Flood waters rose to the top step of the only two-storey building in town; 140 people stranded there sang, prayed, read the Bible, drank rainwater, and caught coconuts and bananas that floated by. About half of the Masicales residents were eventually able to return to their homes, but the hurricane had changed the course of the nearby river and residents felt vulnerable. About a third of the families chose to relocate to Holandeza Linda, a community designed by former MCC volunteer and Holland native Jacob Schiere. The Honduran Mennonite Church bought 20-plus acres of land with emergency project funds donated by MCC. The owner sold it for about $21,500, lower than market value. The new community of 55 homes lies eight kilometres from Masicales, close enough for families to continue farming their land, but far enough from the river that they feel safe. Construction on Holandeza Linda began in August 1999. – MCC
Max Ediger, a Mennonite Central Committee worker in Bangkok, Thailand, has been banned from re-entering Thailand, where he worked for Burma Issues, a human rights organization he helped found in 1989. Ediger was in the US visiting family in December and was denied re-entry upon returning to Thailand Dec. 31. In February 2000, Ediger was charged with harbouring illegal immigrants. He was held for one day, then released on bail. Thai police raided the office of Burma Issues after a Burma Issues publication was found on the body of one of 10 young Burmese rebel soldiers who had illegally crossed into Thailand and seized a hospital. Besides Ediger, police detained, questioned and released two other MCC workers and nine Burmese trainees. Burma Issues helps Burmese refugees develop creative and nonviolent ways to end the war and oppression in their communities. It also researches and documents human rights abuses in Burma, produces various publications and teaches literacy. Burma’s more than 60 minority ethnic groups have struggled through civil war and military rule since 1948. The rebel soldier was not involved with Burma Issues, though some trainees do come from counter-insurgency groups. After seven months of court hearings, Ediger pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $370. (Most who come to Burma Issues for help cannot receive legal travel documents to Bangkok, where the office is located.) The court suspended both the prison term and the fine, determining Ediger to be of good character and Burma Issues’ work “beneficial to Thai society and people”. Since the February raid, Burma Issues has moved its training of Burmese refugees out of Bangkok to the Burma-Thailand border. – MCC
Church Partnership Evangelism, a short-term evangelistic ministry that brings North American Christians together with nationals from other countries in order to share the gospel door to door, made 37 campaigns in 2000. Over 50,000 people prayed to accept Christ. CPE is sponsored by MBMS International. – Church Partnership Evangelism
Three students from Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg are participating in a student exchange program with Lithuania Christian College in Klaipeda, Lithuania. Janaya Letkeman, Carlee-ann Dueck and Shannon Fehr will be studying Baltic history and teaching English as an international language and religious studies courses from January to April. Eugenija Stankeviciute, Gintare Gaubaite, Olga Goncarko and Rina Koblenc, who are from Lithuania and Belarus, returned home Dec. 16 after completing one term at CMU. Stankeviciute feels that her time at CMU prepared her to compare her Roman Catholic background with other Christian groups and to examine her own beliefs. “Now I want to check into why those differences exist,” she said. Established in 1991, Lithuania Christian College is a liberal arts college in the former Soviet Union. It has about 400 students enrolled in bachelor degree programs. Concord College, a partner college of CMU, has been participating in the exchange program since 1994. – Canadian Mennonite University
The MCC Family Services office in Winkler, Man. has been reopened with a $7,000 grant from Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba. The office, which is open Wednesdays for drop-in visits and schedules longer appointments at other times, helps Mennonites from Mexico settle in Canada. It helps with the paperwork involved applying for citizenship papers, work permits, health cards, social insurance numbers and child tax credits. Staff also translate official letters into Low German, provide vouchers for food, clothing and furniture, and occasionally accompany people to medical appointments. Between 12 and 17 people use the office’s services each week. A similar office first opened in Winkler in the early 1980s, with funding from MCC Manitoba, but local interest and MCC contributions dropped off in following years. Some settlement work continued with the help of volunteers and local donations. Recently, the number of Mennonites returning from Mexico and Latin America has increased due to crop failures, poor prices and economic hardship there. Some area businesses also are recruiting workers in Mexico. – MCC Manitoba
Dr. Matthew Lukwiya, chief of staff at Lacor Hospital in northern Uganda, died in December of the Ebola virus. Lukwiya, who focused the world’s attention on the recent Ebola outbreak in Uganda, died in the presence of two patients he had been treating. As a result of his death, patients who normally come to the hospital for health care are staying away, and the hospital is losing money. The number of Ebola cases at the hospital has dropped from 60 to four. The hospital receives funding from the Roman Catholic Church and the Ugandan government but depends on income from patients to cover operating costs. Mennonite Central Committee has pledged $38,500 to keep the hospital running, has organized an emergency airlift of 24,000 pairs of surgical gloves and is sending an additional $5,230 for locally purchased food, bedding and clothing for Ebola survivors released from the hospital. Survivors often become outcasts when they try to return to their villages. Neighbours or family members, terrified of contracting the disease themselves, destroy Ebola victims’ clothes and household items. By mid-December, 160 people had died from the virus, and another 400 had been infected. Ebola, which causes internal bleeding, kills 30-40% of the people who contract it; the fatality rate among hospital personnel, however, is 90%. MCC workers Daniel and Kathryn Smith Derksen, who were evacuated from their home in Kitgum because of the Ebola crisis in October, have now returned to the region. – MCC
The Acholi people of Kitgum, Uganda have suffered 14 years of attacks and abductions by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), based in nearby southern Sudan. The LRA is known as one of the most brutal rebel groups in Africa. In summer 2000, over 50 deaths were reported from attacks and ambushes, including that of J.B. Ocaya, a top government official in the district. According to the United Nations, the LRA has abducted over 6,000 children since 1987; many become sex slaves or fighters for the LRA. Long-distance travel is limited to military convoys, but even travelling short distances can be dangerous. Restrictions on travel have affected food distribution and production, creating instances of malnourishment. Families are often split between their village and a workplace in town. Family members are not always able to attend funerals of relatives or bury the dead properly. Before the violence started, the Acholi enjoyed milk and meat from their cows, vegetables from the northern villages, fresh fish from a neighbouring district and manufactured goods such as toothpaste from the capital, Kampala. Cows have been stolen or killed; fewer items are imported because transporting goods is expensive and dangerous; and the Acholi are receiving less money for their commodities. Families that just a few years ago enjoyed a balanced diet and had enough seeds in storage for several plantings now rely on food donations to survive. Mennonite Central Committee works with local religious leaders and people in Kitgum affected by the war and makes locally purchased food available to communities there. In addition to the violence from the LRA, the Acholi people risk infection from the recent Ebola virus outbreak. Before the Ebola outbreak, Lacor Hospital in northern Uganda was a safe haven from attacks and kidnappings, and people who were not sick often slept in the halls at night. Officials are now worried that some of those who sought refuge at the hospital may have contracted the virus from infected patients before hospital staff realized the disease was present. – MCC
Cambodia received widespread damage from heavy rain and flooding along the Mekong River in September, losing $96 million in crops and livestock. Mennonite Central Committee has donated over $108,000 toward flood relief in Cambodia since October 2000. MCC and its partners distributed food; gave rice seed and hoes to over 900 families; helped build culverts along a main road; and joined Eastern Mennonite Missions in providing 2,655 school kits to students in four flood-damaged schools. – MCC
Bible translations for the remaining 3,000 language groups could take another 150 years to complete at the current rate, according to Wycliffe Bible Translators. The agency hopes to speed this up and start Bible translations for every language in the world by 2025. An estimated 250 million people currently do not have any part of the Bible in their own language. Roger Gilstrap is the new director of Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada. – Wycliffe Bible Translators
Previous | Next
Last modified January 31, 2001.
© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.
|
