About the MAST logo

Our logo was created by Karin Fast at Karinka Design. Karin designed and sewed a quilt in summer 2024 to express her response to MCC's abuse and her solidarity with those who are speaking out. Later, she used this quilt as inspiration to develop a fabulous logo for us (thanks, Karin!).

Here, Karin shares the story of her quilt and its connection with the open letter, the petition, and the need for accountability within MCC. These are powerful words for everyone - and maybe especially for those who have quilted for MCC in the past.

First posted on Facebook on June 25, 2024

There is a point in the process of creating a quilt when a seam doesn’t line up, two corners don’t meet where they should or a line of stitching is crooked. The creative process can start with a burst of energy and the initial euphoria of an idea can carry you along very far, but at some point you realise this is the moment where you need to stop and take out your seam ripper. Sometimes that feels too hard, so you push through regardless, hoping that by the time you’re done your quilt, no one will notice the wonky seams, that maybe you can ignore the problem and in the long run all the other pieces you’ve sewn together, all the colours and stitches you add in, will hide the mistakes. Or you give up, dissatisfied with the way your idea turned out and the quilt ends up as another unfinished project on your shelf.

While I was making this quilt I was thinking about my sister and her family. A year ago they came to The Netherlands in very painful traumatic circumstances. Their employers then fired them without cause while they were on sick leave with PTSD and then tried to get them to sign an NDA with the promise of paying their (still reduced) salary until the end of their employment contract if they would promise to not say anything (hush money?!). This happened after they had asked some very pointed questions about abuse happening at the highest level of the organisation. Read more about it here: https://tinyurl.com/stopmccabuse-full-letter

Now they are standing up to their former employers together with many others who have come forward with similar stories to ask MCC some very important questions with the following words: “We have made dozens of attempts to get the attention of MCC leaders and to resolve our grievances confidentially through discussion or mediation. MCC has consistently responded with minimization, prevarication, or pseudo-investigations. Public exposure is needed to hold MCC accountable to its constituency for this extensive history and pattern of worker abuse. We need you, MCC constituents, to support us in holding MCC accountable to its peacebuilding values. By signing this petition, you are communicating to MCC leaders that you require transparent accountability from them.” https://www.change.org/.../mcc-stop-harming-your-workers...

Hundreds of people have signed their petition and shared their own stories of abuse and I have been reading the many comments and hurt of people asking how an NGO that focuses on reconciliation and peace-building in extreme conflict situations can treat their own workers in such a way. What really gets to me is trite and glossed-over phrases MCC uses, not to answer the questions asked in any way, but to hide behind a mask of opacity and lies. On the other hand I see the outstretched hand of so many people who (have) support(ed) MCC, not to ask these questions in anger, but rather with the real hope of change and giving MCC the opportunity to fix their mistakes, to be an example in how a huge powerful structure can actually back up and unpick the stitches of what they have done. There is real hope that this can lead to something beautiful - with the skills for peace-building and reconciliation actually put into practice, but there is also the fear (and with MCC not willing to answer it seems this is their goal) that this petition will fizzle out and be forgotten, like the unfinished projects stuffed in the back of the closet, leaving hundreds of people hurt and traumatised.

Each colour, shape and stitch of this quilt was made with this in mind. I also thought about the many people who have been reading and following this petition who quilt, who understand the process of lining up seams, finding the right thread colour, know the feeling of letting go of their pride and backing up, unpicking seams to start again, who have felt how creating a quilt takes a long time, needs stamina and endurance and have also felt the satisfaction of hours of slow hand-stitching leading to something truly beautiful.

I thought about how power and responsibility in leadership can turn abusive when people are not able to listen, when structures of an organisation become so rigid that thousands of people can hide behind thinking someone else will surely make the right decision. I thought about transparency, the beauty in seeing clearly through policies and reasons for ways of doing things, how the intersection of an organisation and the people working for it becomes something more when there is transparency. I thought about how even one person breaking away from a rigid web of abusive practices can create change.

My daughters watched me quilt and had many questions. We talked about the red and the pink - the pain in the world that MCC workers are trying to heal. How the circle of people and the work they do alleviates some of that pain, slowly reducing the bright red to lighter pink. We talked about the green of hope and good, the different thicknesses of the lines created by people standing together, about the direction of the hand-quilting, the pain from pushing a needle through fabric and how a bit of protection (a thimble) makes a big difference. We talked about what it means to stand up to someone who is hurting you, how hard it is to speak up. How difficult it is to sew a curved line, but how changing direction can become something beautiful. I encouraged them that each person can say something from their heart when they see someone doing wrong. For me that is this quilt.