Making Dolls for Afghan Children

A group called “Circle of Sisters,” part of the Headquarters Administration Mission in Salt Lake City, has been making dolls for Afghan children.  Some of the dolls end up in the hands of little girls living in prisons with their mothers.  Mothers can be sent to prison if their husbands send them away, and people outside the prisons are relied upon for food and supplies.

Anyone who might be interested in lending support or making contributions can contact Leslie Peterson at petersonla@citycreekslc.com or 801-694-0344.

LDS Helping Hands in Guatemala

In conjunction with Children’s Day in Guatemala (October 10, 2009), 7,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) performed acts of service.  Children, teenagers and adults of all ages participated in hundreds of projects — including many that focused on serving children, particularly those battling illnesses or other challenges.  Members sported familiar “Mormon Helping Hands” vests as they interacted with the children.

The various children’s service projects included staging puppet shows, games and pinata parties. Mormons dressed up as clowns, painted the children’s faces and taught them songs. The fun-filled activities brought joy to the children and the many members who participated.

In other areas, members participated in various service activities designed to assist disadvantaged youth. Some spent several hours at various youth facilities painting dormitories, cleaning outside the buildings and repairing stoves, refrigerators and play areas. Volunteers also cut grass and scrubbed hallways. Others collected diapers, gifts and hygiene kits that were presented to those who care for the children.

Church volunteers donated a total of 28,000 hours of service. Participants were following the recent general conference counsel of President Thomas S. Monson, who said: “Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and, figuratively, lose their life, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish — and, in effect, save their life.”

*LDS Church News, November 21, 2009.

LDS Church Receives Community Service Award

Kentucky’s Leaf Chronical newspaper announced the award bestowed by Mayor Dan Kemp and Pennyrile RC&D for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ volunteer service.  In April 2009, for their Annual Day of Service project, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints partnered with Pennyrile RC&D, the city of Hopkinsville and thirty additional organizations and businesses in efforts to clear debris from the Attucks High School to prepare it for future renovation and preservation of the historic building.

Over 300 Latter-day Saints from the surrounding area, including Clarksville, TN, removed over 240 cubic yards of debris using over 1500 man hours during the Church’s annual Day of Service event.  A variety of such Day of Service events were performed by over 550 Latter-day Saint congregations throughout the Southeastern United States. (The local LDS Congregations are currently accepting proposals for service from the Clarksville community for the April 24, 2010 Day of Service.)

Electricity-Generating Merry-Go-Rounds in Ghana

BYU technology students and professor Charles Harrell worked with teachers at the Golden Sunbeam School in Essam village, Ghana, to install an electricity-generating merry-go-round. Some 10,000 schools in Ghana have no electricity.

“It’s a double dream come true,” says Monica Opare, founder of the Golden Sunbeam charity school, “because we are going to get equipment that the children can play with and then at the same time we are going to get electricity from it and that is exciting.”

“These villages and schools don’t have electricity. As children push the merry-go-round, it [generates] electricity that [lights] the school rooms,” says BYU professor Charles Harrell from the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology.  The first project was completed in 2008.

The project was co-sponsored by Empower Playgrounds, Inc. and BYU’s special Capstone project program, wherein technology students plan and complete projects for real business needs.

“Our objective overall is to improve quality of life in rural Ghana,” says Empower Playgrounds founder Ben Markham. “This project will enhance education by providing power for lighting, giving children opportunities for fun and also giving them a hands-on science laboratory.”

“In the rural villages the kids almost have no toys. I seldom saw the kids playing with anything other than a car tire or something else that could be used as a wheel,” says Markham, a retired engineer who served in Ghana as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

When he approached BYU about the project, Markham challenged BYU students to engineer a device that could generate power but would be fun, not work, for the children. To make it fun to ride, the students used a gearbox to multiply the rotation speed and incorporated circuitry to limit the amount of energy extracted from the system.

“The spinning is converted through a gearbox. The gearbox takes their rotation and multiplies it by 35, which then spins the generator and the generator is what converts that energy into electrical energy,” says BYU technology student Ben Drewry.

“So we’ve tried to balance fun, and getting an interesting amount of power from the device,” says Markham.

The power generated by the merry-go-round is stored in a car battery that recharges several dozen portable LED lights that can be used in classrooms and homes. Many families have little or no lighting in the evenings, relying on kerosene lamps, candles, or open flame “bobo” lights. Markham hopes that better lighting at home will lead to greater literacy and productivity for children and their families.

“Once the students have finished learning in the schoolrooms, they’re able to take one of these lamps home with them to light their homes,” added Harrell.

“We can right now have light for the kids, we can have evening classes, their parents can encourage them to do their assignments at home, and I can just imagine what it is going to be like; it’s like a liberation,” says Opare.

Although the current system is designed to charge the LED lights, Markham says the merry-go-round can be used for other applications.

“The amount of power available would easily recharge cell phones and laptop computers, which will probably be uses we’ll look to in the future,” he says.

With donor support, Empower Playgrounds hopes to bring inexpensive lighting and playground equipment to thousands of schools in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa.

BYU engineering and technology students worked more than a year on the prototype merry-go-round which is designed to be built with materials available in Ghana including recycled car parts.

“What we’d like to accomplish is not just to build a single prototype but to define a process, that is replicable, so that other facilities in Ghana, and in any part of the world, could duplicate this same process,” says Harrell.

In May, students from the Marriott School of Management met with Ghanaian education officials and made village school visits to identify site selection criteria for future Empower Playgrounds projects. In addition to the merry-go-round design, EPI is also investigating designs for an electricity-generating zip line and a swing set to provide additional play and power for village schools. For more information, see www.empowerplaygrounds.org.

Watch a short video about the project.

See the full report.

Mormons Help Locally – All Over the World

Latter-day Saints believe that giving service to others is a lifestyle based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, who “went about doing good.”  The desire to serve others crosses cultural boundaries and has been manifested in recent months with stories featured on International Church Web sites.  From Brazil and El Salvador to Samoa and Guatemala, members of the Church are reaching out around the world to help those in need.  Below are some examples.

The Mormon Helping Hands program has reached its 10-year anniversary in Brazil.  Mormon Helping Hands has served the needs of thousands while providing many more thousands the opportunity to serve. On 12 October, National Volunteer Day in Brazil, tens of thousands of Mormon Helping Hands volunteers completed service projects throughout the South American country.

“The need to supply blood banks is compelling, as there is a deficit of more than 30,000 units of blood each year,” said Ana Vilma Aguilar, national coordinator. “Aid from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is invaluable and it enables us to significantly reduce the gap in our inventory.”

In Samoa volunteers helped restore both a grandmother’s home and her hope at a time of significant human loss following the recent deadly tsunami in the South Pacific.

By Uniting against Hunger, Mormons in Guatemala have responded to drought conditions that have destroyed crops.

“I brought two pounds of rice for my little friends who are without food,” said an eight-year-old girl who worked side by side with her father for two hours preparing rations.

The Church joined hands with numerous charitable and municipal organizations in collecting more than 300 tons of food.

Following September’s tropical storm, members in the Philippines continue an ongoing effort to provide food, water, clothes and other relief supplies.

In the Dominican Republic, members say they were following the admonition of their Savior when they donated 500 much-needed wheelchairs.

And on a smaller scale, women in England donated a portable machine that helps hospice patients breathe easier by clearing airways.

From LDS Newsroom.