Mennonite
Central
Committee

MCC workers evacuated to Cyprus

Gladys Terichow
July 21, 2006

Following a nine-hour wait at a port in Beirut, MCC workers Ken and Kathryn Seitz were safely evacuated from Lebanon yesterday.

They left Lebanon aboard a commercial passenger ship in an evacuation organized by the U.S. government, said Rick Janzen, director of MCC's Middle East programs.

They are currently in Cyprus and have airline tickets to fly home to their hometown of Harrisonburg, Virginia tomorrow.

"We are very grateful and relieved that they are safe and that they can continue with the plans they had made for their home leave," said Janzen, explaining the couple had previously planned to leave Lebanon July 29 for a three-month home and study leave in the United States.

The Seitz's have been working in Lebanon since June 2004. Prior to working in Lebanon Ken served as a pastor of the First Mennonite Church in Reedley, California and Kathryn was a school teacher.

Another MCC worker, Bassam Chamoun, has moved into the living quarters adjoining the MCC office in Lebanon and is coordinating and monitoring MCC's emergency response for displaced people, said Janzen. Chamoun and his family fled their village in southern Lebanon yesterday for the relative safety of Beirut.

According to the Middle East Council of Churches the number of displaced people is now about 600,000 people. The agency also reports that 250 people have been killed and 750 have been injured.

Janzen and his wife lived in Lebanon 1997 to 1999 and fear for the safety of friends and acquaintances in the country.

"We have heard many people say they are afraid of what will happen after the evacuation of foreigners is completed. They are afraid this chaos enables internal divisions in the countries and historic tensions to re-surface," he said.

MCC's initial emergency response funding is being used to help Lebanese organizations provide food, water, medical supplies, mattresses, bedding and other basic supplies for displaced people in Beirut.

MCC continues to monitor the situation in Lebanon and is planning a more comprehensive emergency response for when the conflict dies down, said Janzen.

 

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