STORIES
Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Bangladesh // photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance
Myanmar Earthquake Relief3/29/2025  Dear Disciples,
On March 28, 2025, a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, causing widespread destruction and loss of life. Just minutes later, a powerful aftershock reaching as far as Thailand, Bangladesh, and southeast China worsened the devastation, leaving thousands injured, missing, or without shelter. Communities are struggling with collapsed infrastructure, overwhelmed hospitals, and a severe lack of food, clean water, and medical supplies. Global Interconnectedness2/13/2025 + Special Offering 2025 : Mission Moment (Middle East) Dear Friends, In 2023, I traveled to Juba, South Sudan – the world’s newest country, formed in 2011 after the decades long North-South conflict ended. South Sudan remains one of the world’s poorest nations, where access to clean water, food, and healthcare is scarce. As a young country, its infrastructure is fragile, and its people continue to bear the weight of poverty and instability.
I visited South Sudan to witness the work we support at a hospital providing life-changing surgeries for women suffering from obstetric fistula – a painful childbirth injury that often leads to isolation and rejection from their families and communities. These surgeries, performed in a clinic built by our ecumenical partners, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, restore dignity and hope. Each year, women travel hundreds of miles seeking this care, and because of the dedication of our partners, thousands receive the medical attention they desperately need. None of this would be possible without a network of collaboration. an update from Middle East partners2/12/2025  photo via MECC/DSPR Week of Compassion is grateful for long-standing relationships with ecumenical partners responding to the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.
Dr. Peter Makari (Global Relations Minister, Middle East and Europe, with Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ), visited the region last week and offered updates from partners there. Week of Compassion, through Global Ministries, supports these partners as they respond to the vast needs in Palestine and Gaza, and in surrounding nations, like Jordan, supporting the mass influx of Palestinian refugees. Week of Compassion is launching a Summer Immersion program for seminarians (age 21+) currently enrolled in theological institutions and seeking ordination in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Disciples will spend six to eight weeks in the Philippines or in Pakistan, working alongside local faith-based organizations providing disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. The Middle East - Marking One Year10/7/2024  photos: MECC-DSPR, ACT Alliance This week (Monday, October 7) marks one year since the escalation in violence in the Middle East, in which 1200 Israeli citizens were killed by Hamas and more than 200 Israelis were taken hostage, and one year since Israel’s ensuing response: bombardment in Gaza and the West Bank, and the spread of the war in the Middle East. As of this writing, nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed, and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced – many of them multiple times – from their homes to other parts of Gaza, and made refugees in neighboring countries. Amid this humanitarian crisis of still untold proportions, in recent days, the violence and threats have expanded into Lebanon, even as the war persists in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Hidden Cost of An Ongoing War9/23/2024 caring for people with disabilities in regions in crisis When the war reached their front yard in 2022, Liudmila and her son had to flee their home in Bakmut. Liudmila recalled her beloved small town in eastern Ukraine, a place filled with roses, and numerous schools for the town’s children. “The best city on Earth. That’s how the local people often called it,” she said. In May 2023, President Zelenskyy said, “Bakmut is only in our hearts. There is nothing left in this place.”
Luidmila’s adult son, Dmytro (38), is one of 261,000 people with intellectual disabilities living in Ukraine. National health and governmental organizations estimate some 2.7million people there live with at least one, and often multiple, disabilities. Humanitarian organizations and advocates consistently note that it is the sick, elderly, and disabled – those who are already challenged to get information and receive equal and adequate care – who are disproportionately affected by war and natural disaster. Ukraine Response8/27/2024 "acting in alliance with the Spirit of love" In early 2022, in the days immediately following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, humanitarian concerns and response focused on border assistance, transportation, secure shelter, sufficient and nutritious food, and financial support for those fleeing to join family and friends elsewhere. As the war persists into its third year, partners have focused on helping rebuild in-country and assisting those who have sought safer life in new places.
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