Skip to content

Donate now

Enter your ZIP code

Set your location

Tell us where you are so we can show you news from your area.
Visit MCC Canada.
U.S. Go to Canada site
Mennonite Central Committee

Relief, development and peace in the name of Christ

Search form

Learn more Get involved Centennial Contact us Donate
Get involved Current openings What we do
Learn more Centennial Contact us Donate
Menu

Mennonite Central Committee

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a worldwide ministry of Anabaptist churches, shares God's love and compassion for all in the name of Christ by responding to basic human needs and working for peace and justice. ​

About MCC​

  • Vision and mission
  • Leadership and board
  • Annual reports
  • Funding/tax exemption
  • Historical records

Publications and resources

  • A Common Place magazine
  • In Touch newsletter
  • Intersections quarterly
  • Education resources

Stories

Webinars

Podcast

What we do

  • Relief
  • Food
  • Water
  • Health
  • Education
  • Migration
  • Peace
  • U.S. programs
  • Advocacy

Where we work

Donate to MCC

Give a gift that changes lives, supporting MCC’s work around the world. Donate now.

Events

  • Relief sales
  • Canning

Make kits or comforters

Advocate

  • Washington Office
  • UN Office

Fundraise

  • Donate now
  • Legacy Giving
  • My Coins Count/Penny Power
  • Giving Registries

Serve

  • Work with us
  • Volunteer locally
  • Young adult programs

Alumni

Thrift Shops

Looking for more information?
Get in touch with a representative from your region here.

Happy Birthday, MCC! 

It's been 100 years since we first started responding to basic human needs in southern Russia (present-day Ukraine). Now, we continue to work for relief, development and peace all over the world. 

Engage

  • 100 Stories
  • Share your story
  • Alumni reunions

Give Back

  • New Hope
  • Legacy giving

Advocate

  • Advocacy campaign

To mark 100 years of sharing God’s love and compassion, and your generosity and partnership through the decades, we invite you to explore stories from MCC’s decades of work around the world

Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe on Youtube

Looking for your local office? Tell us where you are so we can show you locations and news around you.

MCC U.S.
MCC U.S.
21 South 12th Street
PO Box 500
Akron, PA 17501-0500
United States
Office: (717) 859-1151
Toll Free: (888) 563-4676
mailbox@mcc.org

Contact MCC

  • General contacts
  • Media contacts
  • Contact Human Resources
  • Send us your questions
  • Welcoming Place

Find a Thrift Shop

Manage your subscriptions

  • A Common Place magazine
  • In Touch newsletter

Where needed most

A gift to where needed most supports the breadth of MCC’s work – meeting urgent needs and building stronger, healthier communities. Give today.

Donate

  • Legacy giving
  • Giving registries
  • My Coins Count
  • Current disaster responses
  • Support a service worker
  • Make kits and comforters
  • More giving projects

More information

  • FAQs
  • Annual reports
  • Privacy policy
  • Security information

You are here

  1. Home
  2. Stories
  3. Water from stone
Chad

Water from stone

In Chad, water pumps provide life-giving water for tens of thousands in refugee camps

February 18, 2020

By Jason Dueck

With a series of quick, practiced strokes, Aïchatou Hamidou clears the area around a newly built latrine with a long broom made from dry grass. After the trash and waste are swept into a tidy pile and safely disposed of, she unties the brightly patterned red handkerchief over her nose and mouth and adjusts the unmissable royal blue smock designating her as a member of the WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) team.

Hamidou is the leader of the WASH team in Kobiteye ‒ a refugee camp of more than 6,000 in Chad near the border of Central African Republic (CAR). She’s one of 24,000 refugees who are living in Kobiteye as well as two other government-built camps and a few dozen small villages in the area near the city of Goré.

Aïchatou Hamidou sits with the women who make up her WASH team after finishing their morning errands in Kobiteye, a government camp supporting around 6,000 refugees.MCC photo/Colin Vandenberg

A campaign of deadly attacks on nonnative Central Africans living in CAR ‒ like Hamidou, whose parents were Chadian — caused thousands to flee into nearby countries where they have no family or support.

These three camps are the site of one of MCC’s planned centennial projects ‒ a partnership with Secours Catholique et Développement (SECADEV; Catholic Relief Services) that provides WASH support, namely, making sure everyone living here has access to safe, clean water.

When the camps were first built in 2013, builders dug open-pit wells, which can easily become breeding grounds for unsafe bacteria and disease, especially when there are not enough latrines to properly support the population. MCC and SECADEV have begun work with leaders in these camps to install new sealed handpumps that draw water that isn’t polluted by waste from much deeper underground.

In Danamadja, one of the other Chadian camps, refugee and mechanic Mahamat Moctar (middle right) maintains one of the water pumps constructed in the camp by MCC partner SECADEV.MCC photo/Colin Vandenberg

But contamination isn’t the only concern with the water supply in Kobiteye. Although the new pumps are a significant improvement, there simply aren’t enough pumps to draw water for everyone in the camp. The WASH team found that residents of the camp have access to 17 percent less water on average than the United Nations minimum standard for refugees in emergency situations.

In the sweltering heat, a lack of safe water often leads to arguments around the wells, says Hamidou. It’s not just the lack of water, but the feeling of hopelessness many refugees here live with. There are very few opportunities to earn any income, and nearly all other international relief has dried up.

Nevertheless, the wells that have been built have made a difference.

“SECADEV brought real change to our community,” says Hamidou. “They came and taught us how to deal with conflict better, so there’s much less quarrelling at the wells now. And more latrines and pumps mean people are living with better water and more hygiene.”

MCC is already working in Kobiteye and the other camps, Danamadja and Djako, but thousands of refugees in surrounding villages are still in dire need of WASH support.

In recognition of its century-old roots of helping displaced people, MCC wants to expand on this work and reach more people. With increased support, SECADEV will be able to expand its work to the refugees who don’t live within the camps.

This is one example of how your gifts to the New Hope in the Name of Christ centennial fundraising campaign will meet urgent needs and support special projects for people on the move. 

Share this story
Share
Tweet
Plus 1

Donate today

Every gift makes a difference

Please enter your donation amount

E-newsletter signup

Stories and photos from MCC delivered to your inbox once a month

Connect with MCC

Like us on Facebook
View on Instagram
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe on Youtube
  • Learn more
    • About MCC
    • Where we work
    • What we do
      • Relief
      • Food
      • Water
      • Health
      • Education
      • Migration
      • Peace
      • Restorative justice
    • Privacy
  • Get involved
    • Employment
    • Events
    • Kits
    • Advocate
    • Volunteer
  • Donate
    • Donate now
    • Donation FAQs
    • Giving registries
    • Legacy giving
Mennonite Central Committee

   

© 2021 Mennonite Central Committee
Tax Identification Number: 23-6002702