Relief impact report - Summer 2025

An update on MCC relief projects

Chiloto Chizongo (right) and Juliet Chabokola (left) stand with their bikes loaded with bags of food provided to them from MCC partners.

Zambia Egypt — Aug 2025

menu_book Impact report

Disaster response

August 01, 2025

Emergency food for Zambian families

After a devastating drought, your help has arrived

During the 2023/2024 rainy season, Zambia faced one of its worst climate shocks in recent history. Rainfall was far below average, and when combined with extreme heat and invasive pests, it led to a devastating drought. One million hectares of crops were destroyed, leaving more than a million farmers and their families without food or income.

MCC partner Brethren in Christ Church (BICC) has leveraged your generous support to alleviate hunger in five communities. Emergency food relief was delivered in monthly rations to over 475 households.

These monthly packages included 35 kilograms of ground maize, five kilograms of beans, two kilograms of salt and two litres cooking oil, providing nutrition and relief for these vulnerable families.

Banner photo caption: Chiloto Chizongo (right) and Juliet Chabokola transport the bags of food that donors like you have helped provide for families in their community of Ng’onga ward, Zambia. Through the recent drought, these food rations have been critical in keeping starvation at bay. (MCC photo/Debora Chomveka)

A warm welcome after a long journey

A coordinator with MCC partner StARS stands in front of a wall. She helps refugees in Cairo who are seeking support. — Salam*, a coordinator with MCC partner StARS , is a friendly face and a wealth of knowledge for refugees seeking support with language barriers, protection issues or medical challenges in Cairo, Egypt. (MCC photo/Roger Anis)

Your support is meeting the needs of refugees in Cairo

Nestled into one of the busiest, noisiest overpasses in Cairo, MCC partner, St. Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS) is a lifeline for thousands of refugees arriving in Egypt. Through StARS, you are helping provide emergency relief, food and medical support for vulnerable families who have recently arrived in Cairo.

Cairo carries much of the weight of displacement in North Africa. Refugees are arriving daily from Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Recently, StARS saw an average of 250 new arrivals per month seeking urgent assistance — including children as young as 10 years old, often travelling alone.

I especially admire the strength of women. We have a lot of single refugee moms who come for support with children, and they do everything for their children.

Leila*

Sudanese Refugee, StARS employee

With your generous support, the team at StARS is equipped to address the immediate, emergency basic needs for refugees and vulnerable migrants who arrive in Cairo seeking safety.

Here's a snapshot of how you have helped:

145 refugees have received short-term cash support to spend on rent and food.
87 refugees have received cash assistance to stabilize their living situation and purchase goods that help them achieve self-sufficiency.

*Name changed for security reasons.

Partner spotlight: St. Andrew's Refugee Services

St. Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS) was founded in 1979 by Saint Andrew’s United Church in Cairo, Egypt. StARS serves on the frontlines of global displacement. Every day, the team works diligently to improve the quality of life for refugees and vulnerable migrants through education, psychosocial, legal and community outreach.

From Ethiopia to Egypt

Two refugees in Cairo, Egypt stand in front of a group of people. — For refugees navigating the vast and busy city of Cairo, StARS is a safe haven. Your support has helped provide food, household essentials, rent assistance and medical care as refugees work to rebuild their lives. (MCC photo/Roger Anis)

Dahlia’s story as a refugee is one of courage and endurance

Dahlia* is a survivor.

Originally from Ethiopia, Dahlia moved to Sudan when she was nine-years-old after her father passed away. Now an orphan, Dahlia was raised by people in the Oromo community.

Desperate for a brighter future, Dahlia relied on smugglers to travel to Egypt in 2015. It was a harrowing journey riddled with human trafficking, harassment, violence and sexual exploitation.

In 2021, she registered as an asylum seeker in Egypt with the the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and approached St. Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS) for help. Recognizing the urgency of her situation, the StARS team quickly provided Dahlia with cash assistance, food and hygiene boxes and helped her secure safe housing.

StARS is unique as an organization in that most of its staff are refugees themselves and were StARS program recipients themselves at one point.

They know firsthand the challenges of adapting to life in Cairo as refugees.

Since then, championed by donors like you, the StARS team has been able to support Dahlia as she found her footing in Cairo. When she found out she was pregnant in 2023, she registered with the organization’s Medical Access Program ensuring she could deliver her baby safely. She was also supported by StARS’s Refugee Legal Aid Program to help obtain a birth certificate for her child.

Because of your support, Dahlia is on her way to a more hopeful future. She has a job at a coffee shop and can support her two young children independently.

The door always remains open to her, should she need drop-in support or immediate help at StARS’ clinic. But for now, Dahlia’s case file with StARS has been closed. She is standing on her own two feet.

*Name changed for security reasons.

To learn more about MCC relief initiatives visit mcc.org/disaster-response

Your impact around the world

With your partnership, MCC is delivering critical relief assistance to people around the world including in current conflict and disaster zones. Here are a few recent examples of your generosity at work:

Initiative: Because of your compassionate support, 146 migrants near the Mexico- U.S. border received shelter, care, psychosocial support and protection at Casa del Migrante.

Partner: Centro de Atención al Migrante Exodus

Initiative: For six months, your help provided meals twice a day for 176 Venezuelan immigrants. Far from home and struggling to survive, this vital support — alongside shelter — offered stability and care to a vulnerable community.

Partner: Iglesia Menonita de Riohacha

Initiative: Your generosity ensured that at least 14,678 people in Meheba Refugee Settlement Camp received food and basic necessities like soap, comforters, canned turkey, hygiene kits, laundry soap and more.

Partner: Brave Heart Zambia

Initiative: This past winter, 632 households received cash equivalent of $54 CAD distributed in local currency to help them prepare for the cold weather. This money helped families purchase heating fuel, warm clothes and blankets.

Partner: Social Assistance and Development

A donor's family legacy

Legacy donor, JoAnne Janzen, sits in a booth with mug in hand. — “I support MCC with all my heart,” reflects JoAnne Janzen. To honour the life-changing support her own mother received from MCC as a child, JoAnne has left MCC a gift in her will.

As a child, JoAnne Janzen’s mother was provided meals at an MCC soup
kitchen in southern Russia (present-day Ukraine) in the 1920s. This personal family connection to MCC instilled a deep sense of gratitude in JoAnne and a commitment to support the organization.

To honour her family’s history, JoAnne has left a gift in her will for MCC. Through her thoughtful generosity, JoAnne will continue to make a difference beyond her lifetime, reaching people around the world with the same compassionate, practical help her mother received over a century ago.

Learn more about how you can leave MCC a gift in your will at mcc.org/legacy