Mennonite
Central
Committee

MCC in India

Asia

MCC supports community development, HIV/AIDS projects, conflict resolution training and disaster response in India and works through the Global Family program to make primary, secondary and vocational education available to students who could not otherwise afford it.

MCC responded to the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami by working through partner organizations including Church's Auxiliary for Social Action, Mennonite Brethren Development Organization (MBDO) and Mennonite Christian Service Fellowship of India (MCSFI).

MCC funds helped to provide emergency food and supplies to tsunami survivors; to replace fishing boats and nets; to help residents start other small businesses; and to spread knowledge of trauma healing techniques in the devastated Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

MCC focuses its community development work on eastern Indian states of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh, which together have a population of 245 million. This area includes Kolkata (Calcutta), where the MCC office is located, and encompasses some of the most impoverished regions in this vast nation. MCC supports a project to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in rural villages in Jharkhand.

MCC funds conflict resolution and peacebuilding initiatives and also has helped form school-based peer mediation programs.

MCC's Global Family Sponsorship Program gives students financial assistance for primary and secondary schooling and helps student connect with and afford vocational training programs. MCC also funds educational initiatives in squatter settlements and slums in Kolkata.