EPHRATA, Pa. - The war in Syria is forcing many Syrians to leave the Middle East. The Mennonite Central Committee is attempting to collect more funds to helps Syrians who want to be able to stay near their homes.
The MCC Material Resource Center in Ephrata, Lancaster County serves as a collection site for relief kit items. The kits are sent to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The most requested kits are school kits. They include pencils, notebooks, colored pencils, an eraser and a ruler. The kits give kids a sense of normalcy in their otherwise disrupted lives. The MCC says through their partners, they know, if some Syrians basic needs were met, they would not leave the country.
"We respond when there’s a crisis but we also wanna walk along aside people, over the long haul, to help them get back to a place where they can stand on their own two feet," said James Wheeler of the MCC Center in Ephrata. For more on the MCC's mission visit here.