Mennonite
Central
Committee

MCC in Indonesia

Asia

MCC is responding to the Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake and tsunami with projects in areas including Banda Aceh, Bireuen, Lhokseumawe, Meulaboh and Nias island.

In addition to emergency assistance and trainings in trauma healing techniques in the weeks following the earthquake, MCC is also funding medical work in camps for displaced people and projects to clear land and provide school supplies to students who lost their homes. Longer-term initiatives will continue to help families rebuild their lives over several years and support the work of education in university settings.

Aside from disaster response, MCC works primarily with universities and with Indonesian Mennonite churches. The work is focused in Java, in the center of the archipelago, and in Papua, the easternmost island.

MCC has provided university lecturers to government and private Christian institutions. MCC works through two Mennonite synods in central Java to administer MCC Global Family scholarships for hundreds of students in Mennonite-run schools. Another Global Family project in Papua supports the education of students from isolated areas of the province. MCC worked with Satya Wacana Christian University in a project to train elementary school teachers from isolated or conflicted areas of Indonesia.

In central Java, MCC has provided a worker to the peace program of Duta Wacana Christian University and supports the peace of work of the Forum for Peace Across Religions and Groups in Solo.

Serving and Learning Together (SALT) participants from Canada and the United States work in Indonesian schools, and Indonesian Mennonite synods select participants to travel to Canada or the United States through MCC’s International Volunteer Exchange Program.