Disasters Deplete Agency’s Relief Supplies

Mennonite Central Committee warehouses that were overflowing with relief supplies in the middle of 1988 were empty by the end of the year as a result of a series of disasters that occurred at the rate of one a month.

By the time 1988 ended, the Akron, Pa.-based agency had sent 1,500 tons of aid to victims of disasters in Sudan, Bangladesh, Jamaica, the Philippines, Nicaragua and Soviet Armenia and had committed about $1.47 million in cash to help them.

Sudan was hit first, when record floods in August forced 1.5 million refugees who had fled the civil war in the south from makeshift homes in camps at the edge of Khartoum. MCC sent about $220,000 worth of milk powder, blankets, clothing, soap and school and sewing kits which were distributed by the Sudan Council of Churches. In addition, the agency purchased $250,000 worth of sorghum for refugees.

For flood victims in Bangladesh, the aid in early September included 900 metric tons of wheat and $50,000 for emergency centers and bandages, blankets and material aid valued at $193,000. Help was relayed again in November.

When Hurricane Gilbert blew through Jamaica in mid-September, MCC donated about $125,000 to pay for the repair and rebuilding of 200 homes, four churches and two schools and also sent blankets and food products. It sent $1.4 million worth of aid to Nicaraguan victims of Hurricane Joan in October and $10,000 in relief aid to the Philippines for those affected by a typhoon Oct. 23-25.

By the time an earthquake shook Soviet Armenia in December, MCC’s supplies of blankets had been depleted, so the agency purchased 10,000 blankets, valued at $40,000, for survivors.