Relief, development and podcast Mennonite Central Committee

Myanmar has been in crisis since the military seized power again in 2021. Distributing aid is dangerous, so MCC's partners in the region face significant challenges. Meet Mr. Khong (not using his real name for security reasons), an MCC partner in Myanmar. He shares how he is navigating these dangerous conditions, talks about the moral obligation he feels as a peace worker, the livelihoods being impacted, families fleeing from their homes, the unpredictability of the army and the constant worry about being a target. 
"Being meaningful to my country, being meaningful to my community, that can’t be measured," he says.
Full transcript available here.

Part two of the conversation with Jonathan Kuttab and Alain Epp Weaver focuses stories of Palestinian nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation. We also hear stories from Jad Issac, the director general of the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ), an MCC partner of over 40 years.
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Transcript

Gaza has seen so much devastation over the last few months. In this episode we are joined by Palestinian human rights lawyer and former MCC volunteer, Jonathan Kuttab, as well as Alain Epp Weaver, director of MCC's planning learning and disaster response department, to talk about the current situation and the history that has brought us to this point. MCC has continued to respond through local partners, Seth Malone and Sarah Funkhouser , MCC representatives for Jordan, Palestine and Israel, tell us how. 

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Mennonite Action
Transcript 

Meet the engineer behind Score Against Poverty’s fuel-efficient stoves used in Mwenezi, Zimbabwe.  Cynthia discusses the importance of the community being involved in the design. You’ll hear how the collaborations of the community of women, the engineer and the local artisan all a part of making the stoves efficient, sustainable and easy to use. Cynthia says, “If you involve them you know that the rate of failure is low and you know that the model that you are going to design or make you are sure that the women will be using it” 
Full transcript here

In his book “The High Mountains of Portugal,” Yann Martel writes...  

“Love is a house with many rooms, this room to feed the love, this one to entertain it, this one to clean it, this one to dress it, this one to allow it to rest, and each of these rooms can also just as well be the room for laughing or the room for listening or the room for telling one’s secrets or the room for sulking or the room for apologizing or the room for intimate togetherness, and, of course, there are the rooms for the new members of the household. Love is a house in which plumbing brings bubbly new emotions every morning, and sewers flush out disputes, and bright windows open up to admit the fresh air of renewed goodwill. Love is a house with an unshakable foundation and an indestructible roof.” 

In this episode, we’re bringing you a story about a house. A house that belongs to author Yann Martel and now houses newcomers. 

We explore what it takes to sponsor a refugee family. How it takes a village. A community. A network of people working together, using their strengths. How anyone can get involved with the resources, time or skills they have to offer. We speak with Yann and a number of people connected to the home he gifted—a family member who was once a refugee herself, someone from the sponsorship group and a neighbour.
Full transcript available here.

One person said it “looked like a goat wearing a goat costume.” MCC staff Colin Friesen said it looks kinda like a bantha from Star Wars, but less hairy and also kind of like a camel?
On this episode of the podcast we explore the mystery...of why the Damascus goat looks the way it does and why an MCC partner in Lebanon chose to distribute this goat. 
Full show notes here.