Additional Information on Mercy Corps
* Following are brief synopses of a number of MC’s major programs:
- The Agriculture Program contends that agricultural improvements “have often been made by increasing the amount of land under cultivation” – a practice that causes “soil erosion, deforestation and water pollution.” To address this matter, MC helps small farmers and pastoralists “develop their production capacity so they can increase productivity and weather environmental shocks and stresses.”
- The Children & Youth Program provides adolescents with “opportunities for community involvement, vocational training and life skills development.” Moreover, MC’s Comfort for Kids initiative aims to help children recover from trauma through play, sports and art activities.
- The Conflict Management Program seeks to address “the root causes of conflict today” in order to “help avoid tomorrow’s wars and other crises.”
- The Economic Opportunity Program promotes “market-based” practices to help communities build businesses, increase their incomes, and improve their employment opportunities.
- The Education Program works to “bring access to education to women and men of all ages and economic groups.”
- The Emergency Response Program provides aid to populations affected by all manner of natural and man-made disasters (such as wars and refugee crises).
- The Health Program partners with such entities as village health committees and government agencies to “help build the means to improve maternal, newborn and child health, ensure proper nutrition, and combat infectious diseases.”
- The Water program works to: increase access to safe water, improve sanitation, implement conservation techniques, and strengthen defenses against flooding.
- The Women & Gender program focuses on helping females “find their equal voice in the places where they have fewer rights, because … strong women equal strong families — and strong countries.”
- Mercy Corps’ Social Venture Fund, which is capitalized by philanthropic contributions, provides early-stage financing to “create and grow scalable, self-sustaining businesses that improve people’s lives in an enduring way.”
* MC has received funding from such sources as the U.S. Department of Agriculture; the U.S. Department of State; the U.S. Agency for International Development; the UK Department for International Development; the European Commission; the European Community Humanitarian Organization; and the governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, among others.
* For details about MC’s history and its gradual expansion across the globe, click here.