EPHRATA – After an initial three-month, emergency food distribution in response to Cyclone Freddy’s widespread destruction in Malawi, Mennonite Central Committee has committed to providing food assistance for an additional eight months. The local Brethren in Christ churches are providing the assistance to 500 households, approximately 2,500 people, in the Mulanje District, which was hit hard. The four-day storm brought devastating rain, floods, and mudslides in March, killing more than 1,400 people and displacing nearly 500,000. Infrastructure like roads, healthcare facilities, farms and schools were heavily damaged, severely affecting the livelihoods of those who were able to remain. All the people MCC is supporting lost their homes to the deluge, with more than half seeing their crops or livestock entirely wiped out, leaving nothing to harvest, and nothing to provide any income for the next year. In early September, MCC sent a shipment of 3,000 handmade comforters, 1,000 relief kits, and 1,760 school kits to those affected by the cyclone. Pastor Dave Miller from New Joy Church, a BIC church in Ephrata, Lancaster County, joined the team at MCC’s East Coast Material Resources Center in Ephrata, to load a shipping container and praying over the container during its final preparations. You can make a donation to the relief at mcc.org/donate.
