(MCC Photo/Dave Klassen) In areas of Nigeria wracked by conflict, MCC partner Emergency Preparedness Response Team works to build trust between Christian and Muslim communities and discourage discrimination. MCC has supported this peace club in Wase Islamic Secondary School.
(MCC Photo/Phoebe Chiring Marak) In Bangladesh, preschool teacher Costantina Mandri helps Moumita Tudu with a literacy activity. Although Bengali is the national language in Bangladesh, there are some 45 different indigenous language groups. More than half of children from these groups drop out of primary school, often because of language barriers. MCC supports preschools that begin instruction in children's own languages and gradually introduce Bengali over a two-year period.
(MCC Photo/Damir Vrbanec) In Serbia, MCC supports the work of partner Bread of Life to increase educational success among the Roma, a marginalized population struggling against cycles of poverty. The program has shown significant improvement in student success and includes tutoring, activities such as this summer camp and advocacy to encourage Roma community members and leaders to value and support education.
(MCC Photo/Nathan Hershberger) Sister Angela and Bhnam (last name withheld for privacy reasons) from St. Anne's Orphanage in Alqosh, Iraq, relax on a couch at the Daughters of Mary covenant in Ankawa, Iraq. On Aug. 6, 2014, six children and staff remaining in the orphanage fled from Alqosh in front of advancing forces of the group calling itself Islamic State. Normally a two hour trip, it took seven hours of hot, dusty checkpoints and clogged roads. St. Anne's Orphanage is supported by MCC.
(MCC Photo/Michael Chapman) In Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, rural K’echí-speaking young adults who have not been to school or who dropped out as children are finding new chances to learn. On Saturdays, the K'ekchí Mennonite Church provides basic literacy and secondary education to youth and young adults. Students receive credit through a national correspondence course. MCC helps to fund teacher and supervisor salaries, transportation and other program costs.
(MCC Photo/Nina Linton) When parents go to prison in Bolivia, children sometimes live there with them. Global Family supports the work of Casa de la Amistad to provide meals and school support to children living in the prisons, and to provide scholarships for former participants in the program. In a region where drug trafficking is common classes help students such as Jhosselin Dorado Ardaya develop the skills to choose a different future. Read more about Dorado Ardaya's story .
(MCC Photo/Amra Pandžo) MCC supports local partners in improving the quality of education and in providing new training opportunities for teachers. In the village of Mehurići, Bosnia and Herzegovina, teacher Fadil Dautbegović, trained in peacebuilding through with MCC support, leads students through an exercise where pupils take turns holding the rope and say something kind about a classmate before passing it on.
(ODOV Photo/Kong Saoroat) In Cambodia's Prey Veng Province, some families send their children to work in Phnom Penh or in a neighboring country. MCC supports sewing and tailoring programs at three rural high schools, helping students gain skills they can use to earn a living without leaving home. Chhi Chhinh is among 21 students in the program at her high school. “I want to learn this skill for my future,” she says. Read more about Chhinh and her determination to start her own business .
(MCC Photo/Monica Shank) At Menno Kids Academy in Nairobi, Kenya, students play with a ball made of plastic bags. (Make your own by tying a plastic bag into a knot, twisting and tying other bags around it and attaching ends with a rubber band.) Members of Mathare North Mennonite Church, struck by the alarming number of neighborhood children not in school, began the academy to provide low-cost education in this impoverished community.
