They help most needy through organized efforts, says recent report
MEDA worked with MCC, MDS and MMA to send the attached release to media on Sept. 25. We thought our MEDAzine readers might find this study of interest.
Today, people in the U.S. Gulf Region are again recovering from hurricanes that lashed their homes and communities in recent weeks. No doubt, people of faith across the country will respond with comfort and aid – just as they did after Hurricane Katrina.
After Katrina, many people around the country wanted to help. Many of those people gave through church organizations, including Anabaptist/Mennonite groups.
Church-sponsored relief efforts took on special importance after Hurricane Katrina because of the troubled government response, said a recently released report by the Institute for Southern Studies. Relief efforts of faith groups were particularly important to lower-income residents and others who were most needy after the storm, stated the institute.
People of faith supported the following efforts of Anabaptist/Mennonite groups:
Mennonite Economic Development Associates
Several months after Katrina, MEDA launched its Back to Business project in partnership with Mennonite Disaster Service, working with local partner Good Work Network, which connects low-income and disadvantaged entrepreneurs to the resources they need. MEDA continues to offer a range of supports to owners of childcare businesses in the greater New Orleans region. This year, GWN served 152 clients in the childcare sector and provided $11,577 in small grants to child care businesses.
Two-thirds of clients had businesses before, up to half in the informal economy. Childcare was a particularly hard-hit sector: Seventy percent of daycare centers vanished, posing a serious barrier to families returning to work. A program was developed to train people who wanted to start childcare facilities.
Richard McCarthy is director of Market Umbrella, another MEDA partner. His organization is committed to linking small scale food producers (farmers and fishers) to sustainable markets. He has high praise for the effectiveness of faith-based organizations like MEDA and MDS. "The big funders didn't know what to do here," he says. "The faith-based organizations knew what to do. They came in here and started to work."
Last year Good Work Network offered technical assistance to 675 people, most of them African-American. Sixty-eight percent were women and 64 percent were lower income. Director Phyllis Cassidy cited MEDA's "generosity of spirit" in strengthening Good Work Network. "Since Katrina our organization has grown five-fold, much of it thanks to MEDA," she said. "You helped heal our very damaged souls and hearts."
Mennonite Central Committee
Mennonite Central Committee’s short-term response was woven through churches – from providing funding to a Native American congregation in Alabama as its members sheltered hurricane evacuees to supporting the work of congregations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in reaching out to neighbors.
Church members from New Orleans-area church Amor Viviente held a service in Houston where many evacuees had fled. "We have people that lost everything," Blanca Mackay, a member of Amor Viviente, said in fall 2005, "but they're grateful to God in the midst of everything." In later months, MCC funds continued to assist Spanish-speaking New Orleans-area churches to reach out to hurricane-affected families, and enabled Spanish-speaking people from other countries to come and work in reconstruction.
Generous donors provided $2.2 million to the Gulf Disaster Response – enabling MCC to support long-term recovery. Efforts included connecting people to social services and affordable childcare in Meridian, Mississippi, funding trauma recovery work in New Orleans and assisting evacuees in Houston, Texas, over a three-year period.
A Vietnamese Mennonite Church member relocated from Philadelphia to Bayou La Batre, Alabama, to respond to the needs in the Vietnamese-speaking community there. Through a partner organization, Churches Supporting Churches, MCC provided funds to help a team of pastors from African-American churches in New Orleans work toward finding affordable housing for returning church members and others in the community. MCC has also placed a worker in New Orleans to be a listening and liaison person for existing community organizations and efforts in the area. MCC US Executive Director Rolando Santiago says, "MCC will continue to partner with local churches and organizations to 'let justice roll down like waters' (Amos 5:24) in the midst of disaster."
Mennonite Disaster Service
Mennonite Disaster Service, which has sent almost 12,000 volunteers to respond in the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, focuses on the uninsured, the underinsured, the elderly, the disabled, and others with special needs. While many may mistakenly see the work in the Gulf Coast as finished, organizations such as MDS realize that the needs continue. MDS has had a long-term presence in the Gulf and will continue to do so for years to come.
Janice E. Jones of the Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau recently wrote to MDS: “While the coast has made phenomenal progress, the rebuilding effort is not complete. As it continues, we are inspired by the ongoing commitment of so many people from around the country, such as those from Mennonite Disaster Service. Because of this kindness, Mennonite Disaster Service has a permanent place in our hearts.”
MMA
In the midst of widespread devastation and loss due to Hurricane Katrina, congregations reached out to affected families. To support that effort, MMA offered a matching grant to churches that donate money in response to this disaster. For every three dollars raised by congregations, MMA gave one dollar – up to $500 per church – enabling congregations to increase their assistance to help the evacuees repair their shattered lives. A total of $50,000 was matched in 2005.
In 2008, an interfaith partnership recently launched the Isaiah Funds to aid in the long-term rebuilding efforts in low-income communities following natural disasters. MMA is one of six partner institutions that created the investment and grant funds to provide low-cost capital to help revitalize local economies. The funds will initially focus on post-Katrina/Rita hurricane recovery efforts.
“Economic redevelopment is a vital, and often overlooked, second stage to disaster recovery,” said Mark Regier, MMA stewardship investing services manager. MMA Community Development Investments plans to invest up to $500,000 in the funds by 2009, with additional investments to be considered later.
Institute for Southern Studies report
MMA cosponsored the Institute for Southern Studies report. Read the report at Soutern Studies.
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