How Katrina is changing MDS

Mennonite Disaster Service learns about urban life, relationships.

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Just as the U.S. government changed its emergency response policies after Hurricane Katrina, Mennonite Disaster Service is adapting to its situation in the New Orleans area. These changes have MDS sailing into uncharted waters.

MDS usually moves into an area suffering from a natural disaster and stays a short time. In three locations in “Katrina land” however, MDS has invested heavily in buildings and staff, which signals a resolve to stay for several years.

Long-term volunteers and staff: Although the MDS business model relies on volunteers who serve a month or longer, the New Orleans situation will mean a shift. That is because the unique urban challenges in that culture require people who can build long-term relationships with public officials and establish credibility with the charitable agencies with whom MDS works.

Denis Janz, professor at Loyola University, has lived in the New Orleans area more than 30 years. He helped MDS set up its unit there and describes the challenges he faced during the first months after the hurricane.



Denis Janz

“A lot depends on how you talk to people and who you know,” Janz says. “I called every friend, contractor, electrician I knew … people who knew the system. These things work differently in a big city than in rural areas and small towns.”

In order to work in this urban environment, MDS plans to place a long-term, volunteer coordinator for its work in the New Orleans area.

“We realize that our model of project directors—two months in and out—needed more support,” says Kevin King, MDS executive director. In addition, “our typical volunteers are not urbanites. It’s a shift for them to work [in New Orleans]. Their concern often is, ‘Is it safe?’ Of course it’s safe.”



Kevin King

For volunteers in New Orleans, the recently completed MDS facility on Hayne Boulevard provides a comfortable place to relax.

Investing in buildings: The three-story unit, located across the street from a levee holding back Lake Ponchartrain, was an office building before Katrina removed its roof. MDS purchased the water-damaged building, and volunteers remodeled it into accommodations for up to 40 short-term volunteers.

“It’s unusual for us to buy buildings,” says King. “But in New Orleans we’re in for the long-haul. We’re committed to being there three to five years … as long as we have meaningful work and the financial resources necessary.”

The Mennonite love train: When MDS leaves an area, local clients can feel abandoned. So MDS looks to Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) to provide follow-up in ways that are not part of MDS’ mission or expertise.

“MDS might leave, but the local people know the Mennonites are still there,” says King. “It is the Mennonite love train.”

While such collaboration is not new for MDS, Hurricane Katrina pushed the organization into new relationships with leaders at MCC, MEDA and Mennonite Church USA.

“Before [Katrina],” says King, “we hardly knew each other’s names. Now we have each other’s cell phone numbers.”

Relationships with other Mennonite agencies are not the only ones changed for MDS. The MDS board has developed new guidelines for responding to Mennonites whose homes and church buildings have been affected by a natural disaster.

“You might have a Mennonite church with a window blown out, and two miles away a [low-income, non-Mennonite] family lost its house,” says King. While MDS may choose to build the family a house rather than replace the church’s window, he says, MDS has learned that the congregation is also a victim and experiences loss.

“We’ve had to look at ways we relate to Anabaptist congregations,” King says. “The faith community is the largest first-responder in the world, but it’s the least prepared [when hit directly by a natural catastrophe].”

Changes at MDS have not gone unnoticed by leaders in Gulf States Mennonite Conference. Moderator Duane Maust refers to “the new MDS.”

Former moderator Bob Zehr, who was a persistent and vocal critic of MDS policies and procedures last winter, now is much more supportive.

“I commend the administrative staff of MDS who were willing to adjust guidelines to meet needs,” Zehr says. “Katrina is worthwhile if we manage to grow and change in positive ways through this experience.”

Everett J. Thomas is editor of The Mennonite.

Read the Memo of Understanding here.

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• Discussion Resource II - Oct. 28, 2007

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Additional Notes

Some facts about MDS:

• Founded in Kansas in 1950 as the Mennonite Service Organization

• In 1993 incorporated as an entity
separate from Mennonite Central Committee

• Number of volunteers who worked for MDS in 2006: 6,103 (a record)

• Number of paid staff members in 2006 in United States and Canada: 15

• Number of work sites in 2006: Nine binational sites (does not include regional and unit projects that do not need oversight from the binational organization)

• Total expenses for fiscal year ending Nov. 30, 2006: $3,899,178

• Total revenue, gains and other support as of Nov. 30, 2006: $4,325,966

Source: Mennonite Disaster Service