Mennonite Central Committee in Hong Kong
In the summer of 1950 a Far-Eastern area office of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) was established in Hong Kong.
The headquarters were located near Sha Tin. The office also was used to house 20 children with TB and was also the distribution centre for relief goods.
At Christmas time, 115 “Christmas bundles” were handed out to families in need.
The office coordinated relief efforts in Asia, assisted with mission agency support – especially with missionaries forced to leave the Mainland, and began new relief efforts in Hong Kong.
The centre was closed in 1952 due to a decrease of relief efforts in the Asia area.
During the next six years the refugee situation in Hong Kong became quite serious. MCC reopened its Hong Kong office in 1958 sending Norman and Eunice Wingert as directors of the renewed effort.
In the first sixteen months after reopening, $1,344,617 Hong Kong dollars worth of food and clothing were distributed by MCC through its centre and 55 other agencies cooperating with MCC in Hong Kong.
About ¼ of this relief was personally distributed by MCC through two local charity hospitals, Kwong Wah and Tung Wah.
At that time Kwon Wah hospital had the largest maternity ward of any hospital in the world, delivering 23,000 babies each year!
In 1958, Mrs. Wingert delivered a package of food and or clothing to every mother who left the hospital – an average of 63 women each day!
During this first year-and-a-half 10,000 Christmas and Leper bundles where handed out.
During 1960, 13,000 cans of pork were distributed to school children attending roof-top schools.
There
were also three kitchens used to cook hot meals for 1,500 students each day.
By 1962 this program was serving 645,000 meals a year to 4,000 students.
In addition to the food and clothing bundles given to new mothers leaving Kwong Wah Hospital , MCC prepared food for and served 200 outpatients of the hospital each day, six days a week.
6,000 Christmas bundles were also handed out in 1960.
It was also in 1960 that MCC began giving aid toward school tuition and medical treatment.
The Educational Assistance
and Family Child Assistance programs began in 1961 linking 450
families in the US and Canada with 450 children from 347 families in Hong Kong
providing tuition assistance, milk powder, vitamins, and other needed support.
In 1971 the Hong Kong Government began to provide free tuition for all primary students. In 1972 the Government began a project to provide public assistance to families in need.
These changes meant fewer and fewer people required the assistance of welfare agencies like MCC.
After the school feeding program ended, the kitchen facilities at Lok Fu were converted into a student library – study centre. The 3,000 volume library was used by nearly 100 students each day.
Everett and Margaret Metzler joined EMM workers Ira and Evey Kurtz in 1969 and Everett served as both MCC Hong Kong Director and EMM missionary from 1970 until MCC ended its Hong Kong relief efforts in 1973. The Metzlers continued ministry in Hong Kong until 1975.