Today we commemorate the Nakba, or the catastrophe. The Nakba occurred when as many as 750,000 Palestinians were internally and externally displaced as refugees after the State of Israel was formalized. During the War of 1948, Israeli paramilitary groups depopulated or destroyed more than 500 Palestinian towns and villages. Palestinian refugees lost almost everything they owned. Their land, buildings, businesses and bank accounts were expropriated without compensation. Many of these families still hold the key to the houses they were forced to flee from, with the enduring hope of return. For the past 76 years, MCC has accompanied Palestinian churches and communities facing an ongoing Nakba of unrelenting violence and dispossession and has supported efforts by Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders who envision and press for a shared future and an alternative to the politics of separation and violence. Today, Palestinians in Gaza are undergoing another catastrophe of mass displacement, destruction and death. Please join us as we continue to cry out for a ceasefire, an end to the violence, and for a just peace in Palestine and Israel. Link in bio ( Select "Continue to call for peace and restoration in Gaza"). (fb)

In 1993, MCC started a papermaking project in southern Bangladesh, seeking to provide sustainable income for rural women and to empower them. What a difference that made for one young mother. In an interview with MCC in 2002, Rina Deuri stressed how there was not only more food for the family, but she could move toward her dream of educating her two young children. Fast forward more than two decades ... and join designer Julie Kauffman as she catches up with Rina. We hope these paired images from 2002 and 2025 give you a glimpse into one mother’s journey to transform her life – and the life of her family. #MCCPeace (fb)