“We, along with the rest of the world, are watching with concern as reports from the massive earthquake in Chile continue to unfold.  As with any disaster, immediate details are difficult to confirm.

“We have confirmed that all of the Church’s missionaries in Chile have reported in and are safe, including the two elders on the Juan Fernandez Island.” (This is an update from a report earlier today when some missionaries had not reported in).  

Latter-day Saints are counseled by their leaders to store food, water, clothing and fuel against unpredicted emergencies, and this helps them weather such disasters and again be ready to help their neighbors.  Local leaders and members began relief efforts shortly after the quake distributing food and water already located in Concepción. Early reports indicate that one Church member has died.

Church leaders have identified that food, water, tents, blankets, hygiene kits and sleeping mats are needed to assist people in the affected region. Representatives of the Church in Chile have been in contact with the country’s Interior Ministry to determine how the Church can most appropriately assist in relief efforts. Emergency response personnel at Church headquarters are poised to provide assistance as appropriate.  Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chile delivered six tons of food from local bishops’ storehouses to the city of Talca on 2 March to help meet needs in several cities north of Concepción.  A second shipment of 20 tons of food is expected to reach Concepción on 3 March. Two additional shipments of food have been sent to affected areas to the south of Concepción.

Most Latter-day Saint meetinghouses in Chile fared well in the quake, though many are filled with dust. At least three meetinghouses suffered extensive structural damage, and another was severely flooded. A house that also served as a meetinghouse was swept away in the tsunami triggered by the earthquake.  Those wishing to donate to the Church Humanitarian Aid Fund can do so here. Resources from the Church Humanitarian Aid Fund make it possible for the Church to conduct humanitarian activities all over the world. One hundred percent of all contributions are used to help the needy.

Relief efforts have included providing food, relief supplies, shelters for displaced Haitians and medical teams to treat the injured and ailing.

The LDS Church has shipped 28 truckloads of relief supplies — including nine air shipments — to Haiti.

Food and relief supplies included 208,834 pounds of food, 16,070 water-filtration bottles, 12,840 hygiene kits, 11,760 blankets, 4,000 first-aid kits, 2,304 newborn kits, 1,696 tents, 1,319 tarps, 600 quilts and 25 medical supply modules.

Other items range from gas-powered cooking stoves to mattresses.  Additionally, five truckloads of food and relief supplies were driven across the island from the church’s Caribbean area facilities in the neighboring Dominican Republic, while local church leaders were authorized to use fast-offering funds to purchase food and water in the first days immediately after the quake.

Nine of the Port-au-Prince LDS meetinghouses have been used as emergency shelters, with up to 9,000 people total — not just LDS Church members — seeking assistance or staying on the meetinghouse grounds.  The Church has also provided food, relief and some cash assistance to a number of nongovernmental organizations, including CARE, Food for  thePoor, Red Cross, International Relief and Development, Islamic Relief and Healing Hands for Haiti. Local church leaders also have provided additional assistance to Haitian charitable organizations.

The church has sent several first-response medical teams, totaling 17 doctors and three nurses, with specialties including trauma, orthopedics, family practice, emergency room and critical care.  Two mental health counselors also assisted at the shelters. Additional medical and mental-health professionals have since gone to Haiti to continue the assisting and assessing needs. [1]

Read more…

Haitian Latter-day Saints

“Those who are members [of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] begin with a gift not easily duplicated—and that is they see themselves differently.  This is the secret, the very key to escaping the culture of poverty.

“They see themselves not as helpless or hopeless, but on a spiritual journey of growth, children of God with a destiny that lies far beyond the broken hovels.  They have testimonies, understand the scriptures, talk with insight about the meaning of their lives.  They have as President Ezra Taft Benson used to say, not just been taken out of the slums, but have had the slums taken out of them.

“They have vision.  They see themselves differently than do their fellows. While Haiti seeks to build a new infrastructure, the Haitian Latter-day Saints have a personal foundation that is unwavering and firm.  An infrastructure in their nation will follow the building of an internal infrastructure based on a sure foundation.

“We have never met better people than among the Haitian Latter-day Saints, nor seen former missionaries who were so in love with the people they had taught and baptized.

“We have never seen miracles more lavishly given from the Lord than among the members in Haiti who are coping with such difficult odds.

“Beyond that, the Church works to promote education and leadership among the people.  Those who have everything given to them, without expectation of work and effort, grow heavy and dull-eyed with apathy and expectation.  In contrast, the Church is there to bring food and shelter in an emergency, but it is all toward the end of ultimately developing the people, their self-sufficiency and their eternal nature.  They are taught to help themselves, become someone who can be counted on, someone who is productive.

“We remember being in Ghana at the time of the temple dedication, learning about the huge numbers of unemployed Latter-day Saints there, the many that were sunk below the poverty line.  We were told by priesthood leaders there that the goal for the area was to be self-sufficient in fast offerings and be able to cover the needs of their own poor.  That is a high expectation, indeed, but not an unrealistic one, as the ability of people to stand is developed by their membership in the Church.”  (Meridian Magazine Report.)

Elder M. Russell Ballard, then of the Presidency of the Seventy and now a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Elder Glenn L. Pace, then managing director of the Church’s Welfare Department and now of the First Quorum of the Seventy, were in Ethiopia to determine how best to use the money donated. 

“While the Church has always responded to the suffering caused by various disasters, the Ethiopian famine triggered a more methodical and organized effort than had been experienced before,” Elder Pace said.  Church leaders held sacred the funds raised in the fast, as well as a second fast held in November 1985 that raised an additional $5 million. To expedite its Church’s humanitarian endeavors, the Church began to form relationships with humanitarian organizations to help those in need.

In the 25 years since that fast, the Church has sent $1.1 billion in assistance to 167 nations. That includes 61,308 tons of food, 12,829 tons of medical supplies, 84,681 tons of clothing and 8.6 million hygiene, newborn and school kits.

And each year the Church’s ability to assist others increases as other humanitarian organizations (many with which the Church now partners) have become acquainted with the Church, said Presiding Bishop H. David Burton. “They know our integrity. They know that when we commit, we follow through. I think we have earned a place among the very best of the non-governmental organizations around the world.”

Today, members may provide support for humanitarian work by donating online, donating through LDS Philanthropies, by giving items to the Deseret Industries or by serving at some of the hundreds of established Church welfare facilities located around the world.

The Church guarantees that every penny donated to the humanitarian fund is used for the care of the poor and the needy.

Recognizing the need to incorporate fresh vegetables into the diet of LDS Altiplano families, the church introduced a culture-changing technology here in the form of family underground greenhouses. Dozens of earthen greenhouses can now be found outside Altiplano homes.  Made of adobe and other simple building materials, the greenhouses are providing families with year-round access to tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, peppers, carrots and a produce section’s worth of other vitamin-rich veggies.  With the assistance of the church’s Benson Institute Office in La Paz, some 100 families have built greenhouses over the past two years. Most of the families are LDS, but many non-LDS families also have been included in the project. The greenhouses are typically built underground where the temperature remains constant, allowing for perpetual harvests.

After digging a rectangular hole, a wooden frame is built that typically rises about two feet above the ground. A roof made of fiberglass or plastic is then stretched across the frame.   The church provided the building materials for the families to get started, along with plenty of construction assistance and training. The homeowners and their families perform most of the building and labor. Principles of self-sufficiency are followed throughout the building process.

The greenhouse owners also were given a maiden batch of seeds that would allow them to grow the vegetables needed to feed their families — with enough produce left over to sell and purchase more seeds.  Training has been essential to the project’s success.  Greenhouses must be situated to receive 10 hours of sunlight, and vegetables must be planted correctly, or they won’t grow.  The residents have been used to eating only one vegetable — potatoes.  They have needed training in the cooking of the vegetables as well as how to serve them raw, and how to make them palatable. [1]

Haitians gather outside of the LDS Centrale Ward chapel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Immediately after the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began mobilizing to send aid. This included a large shipment of 85,000 pounds of supplies from Miami. That shipment included emergency resources such as food, blankets, tents and tarps. Latter-day Saint missionaries assisted in unloading the supplies. 

Two more shipments of food, medical supplies and other items have been trucked in containers from the Dominican Republic to Haiti.  Additional Church shipments from the United States and the Dominican Republic are planned and will include supplies specifically requested by local Church leaders on the ground. 

A team of doctors sent by the Church to help the injured in Haiti left the Salt Lake airport shortly after the tragedy.  The team included 14 doctors and nurses and two family services specialists. The group was self-contained and carrying their own medical supplies, which will be augmented by additional supplies being sent separately. Another small group of physicians from the Dominican Republic and coordinated by the Church is already working in Haiti. 

Seven Latter-day Saint chapels in Haiti are being used as shelters for over 4,000 people from the community. All of the Church’s chapels in Haiti are left largely undamaged by the quake, and many are being used in the relief effort (From LDS Newsroom). 

On January 22, 2010, The LDS Church issued the following statement: 

Three air shipments of aid provided by the Church have arrived and are being used in Haiti. They include food, medical supplies, tents, water filtration bottles, blankets, newborn kits, wheelchairs, first aid kits and other items. Those three flights include a total of nearly 225,000 pounds of relief supplies. The Church provided the transportation for one of those flights, and CARE and United Airlines provided transport for the other two. 

Two more flights are scheduled to leave from Miami by this weekend, and additional flights are planned from Chicago. United Airlines again is providing the transportation for the Chicago shipments, and Islamic Relief USA is providing part of the transportation costs for the Miami shipments. Plans are also being made for future shipments.   

Additionally, three truckloads of relief supplies have arrived in Haiti with supplies the Church procured in the Dominican Republic. 

Medical Relief  

A team of five medical personnel coordinated by the Church arrived on Friday, 15 January, from the Dominican Republic to assist the injured. Another team of 16 medical professionals from the United States arrived on 18 January and are currently providing care for those who need it. “It means so much to these people to know that somebody knows that they are here,” said Brandon Hall, a doctor from Mapleton, Utah. 

Later in its relief efforts, church leaders issued an appeal to the LDS membership to help the people of Haiti: 

In a statement published on the Church’s official Web site, Church President Thomas S. Monson and counselors Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf said they are “keenly aware that many in America are dealing with economic challenges brought on by the recent recession.”  Many Church members have made substantial contributions to Church Humanitarian Services, but more is needed. 

Latter-day Saints pay 10% of their increase as tithing to the Church.  These donations are made in private (rather than passing around a donation plate) to the bishop of each ward.  The donation is placed in an envelope addressed to the bishop and includes a receipt.  On the receipt are listed other categories of donations that Latter-day Saints can make.  One such category is Humanitarian Aid.  Church leaders have asked that humanitarian aid donations increase, or that specific donations be made through the emergency response website. 

The Church’s humanitarian outreach to the poor dates from its earliest beginnings, but major international efforts have included relief shipments at the end of World War II, aid during the Ethiopian famine in the 1980s and most recently relief after the Asian tsunami.  Efforts include not only immediate relief but long-term restructuring. 

Often, the Church collaborates with other organizations to provide shipments of food and other needed items.  

Today’s First Presidency statement also addressed the emotional trauma the Haitian people are experiencing in the wake of the devastating earthquake. 

“Money is not the only need in Haiti,” the statement continued. “People are frightened, bewildered, and wholly uncertain about their future. In addition to what people can do in helping with food, water and shelter, there needs to be a calming influence over that troubled nation. We invite people everywhere to supplicate God for a spirit of calm and peace among the people.” 

Donations for relief efforts can be made at http://give.lds.org/emergencyresponse. 

In the Caribbean islands, there are more than 150,000 members of the LDS Church, in 369 congregations. Over 15,000 of these members live in Haiti, half of these calling Port-au-Prince home. 

Update: 2 February 2010 

Five air shipments of aid provided by the Church have arrived and are being used in Haiti. They include food, medical supplies, communications equipment, tents, tarps, water filtration bottles, blankets, newborn kits, wheelchairs, first aid kits, portable toilets and other items. Those five flights include a total of nearly 375,000 pounds of relief supplies. Partners United Airlines, Islamic Relief USA, Airline Ambassadors and UPS have worked with the Church to provide transport for these shipments. 

Additionally, four truckloads of relief supplies have arrived in Haiti with supplies the Church procured in the Dominican Republic. On the ground in Haiti, the Church is working with partners Food for the Poor and CARE to distribute supplies. 

Local Church leaders closest to the situation provide the direction for what supplies are most needed for people in their areas. Future shipments will continue to bring those relief supplies. 

“Normal daily activity has come to a stop in Haiti. Helping to restore normalcy in the midst of devastation will be our greatest goal. Our focus will be on helping people become self-reliant again,” said Elder Francisco J. Viñas, the LDS Church area president who oversees the Church in Haiti. 

Medical Relief
A team of five medical personnel coordinated by the Church arrived on Friday, 15 January, from the Dominican Republic to assist the injured. Another team of 16 medical professionals from the United States arrived on 18 January and provided emergency care for those needing medical attention. A revolving core team of doctors from the Church remains in Haiti providing general health care, follow-up care for injuries, as well as for sickness and communicable disease common after disasters.  Other private groups of Latter-day Saints, including medical personnel, have been serving in Haiti.  People who were formerly missionaries there have provided help, because they speak Creole or French, or both.   The Utah Hospital team remaining in Haiti was comprised of over 100 people, including returned missionaries serving as translators.  To read about the team, click here and on links at the bottom of the page.

Church Meetinghouses as Shelters
All of the Church’s meetinghouses in Haiti have been left largely undamaged. Local Church leaders report that nine chapels in Haiti have been used to shelter as many as 5,000 people in local communities where the chapels are located. Several truckloads of food and other relief supplies have been shipped to the chapels, and doctors sent by the Church have provided treatment to injured and sick individuals who are taking shelter there. 

Generosity of Members and Friends of the Church
In the first few days after the earthquake the LDS Church received donations in the millions of US dollars from concerned members of the community, specifically for aid in Haiti. Church members in the Caribbean Area have been invited to dedicate their February monthly fast offering to the Haiti relief effort. When fasting, members traditionally donate the money they save by not eating two meals to the church for providing financial help to those in need; those who can donate more are encouraged to do so. 

Update February 16, 2010

The LDS Church announced that it would send 600 home-building kits to Haiti to provide temporary shelter for church members who lost their homes.  The goal is to get the homes built before the rainy season starts.  A single kit includes lumber, corrugated tin for the roof, cement and hurricane straps for the roof.  Organized service projects will first clear away the rubble of homes that were destroyed by the earthquake.  A storehouse is also being established that will store food staples for the members.  Orders are filled through local congregational leaders. Deliveries are then made to the nine Latter-day Saint meetinghouses that have been used as shelters for those displaced by the quake.

The Church has provided nearly 1,500 tents to those left homeless, and many now dot the property around the chapels. “A neighbor told me about this place and invited me to come,” said 16-year-old Cazy Lenlingy. “I am very happy to be here. Everyone has been kind and has received me well, thanks to God.”

Over 7,000 people originally took refuge at the meetinghouses, with those not of the Mormon faith making up more than two-thirds of the homeless.

Response teams on the ground in Port-au-Prince are continuing to assess the situation and coordinate with other nongovernment organizations and relief agencies. While details are still being worked out, future activities will likely include assisting in agricultural, water and mobility projects, providing employment assistance, providing continued support to temporary settlements, and continuing work with other relief agencies.

Continuing Service by the Mormon Church and Individual Church Members

Individual members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been mobilizing to do what they can for the people of Haiti.  Read about them by clicking on the following links: 

Teen Sends Help to Haiti 

Haiti: Time to Cry 

Utahns and Haitian Orphans 

LDS Aid in Haiti 

LDS Medical Team Saves Man’s Leg 

LDS Helping Hands in Haiti 

Humanitarian Aid to Haiti 

LDS Doctor Chronicles Haiti Efforts 

Haiti Efforts Fostering Cooperation 

Our Enduring Ties with Haiti 

No Day of Rest for Haiti 

Former Missionary Helping in Haiti 

Mormon Med Student finds Haitian Daughter 

Mormon social workers help Haitians with grief, anger 

LDS Relief Team reflects upon Service 

Plans for Haitian Children headed to Utah 

Utahn Brandt Anderson builds an orphanage in Haiti 

LDS Family Spared by Miracles in Haiti 

Haitians Camp in LDS Meetinghouse Parking Lots 

LDS Haitians Go Back to Church 

Orphan Rescue 

A Photo Essay of the Destruction in Haiti 

LDS Haitians Return to Worship After Destruction

A Day in Haiti for the LDS Service Team

Foyer de Sion Orphanage Story

Healing Hands for Haiti

First-hand Account from Randon H. Draper,  an LDS Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, and as an attorney on the ground in Haiti

LDS Psychologist Helps in Haiti

In Cambodia, Elder Lowell and Sister Cheryl Curtis from Riverton, Utah, organized a similar project, transporting 40 tons of rice to the Sandan District in northern Cambodia, providing almost 800 families with a 100-pound bag of rice. The Sandan District was hit by the same storm system that devastated Laos, destroying its residents’ ability to plant crops of rice for the year.

Each recipient sat next to the bag of rice they were to receive. Loading their gifts onto their bicycles, they carried home the only rice they were likely to have for the coming year.  The provisions were purchased with Church humanitarian donations, and the senior missionary couples faithfully saw to their distribution, blessing the lives of many people. //

Fishermen were given materials to build desperately-needed boats to replace those lost in the tsunami. Nets, motors, and other fishing supplies were also provided by LDSC. Rice paddies, which provide a significant source of income, were also reconstructed. And the Church organized the digging of wells, installation of storage tanks, and improvement of delivery systems for 25 villages.  

In addition to building 15 schools, 3 community centers, and 3 health clinics, LDSC built 902 homes, approximately 400 square feet each (the size of an average two-car garage). Painted with bright colors, the houses included tile floors, as well as “starter kits” with a mattress, one-burner cooker, pots, pans, silverware, glasses and plates.  LDSC worked with many partners in their relief efforts, including Islamic Relief.

The Church’s major reconstruction efforts in Indonesia ended in December 2007. But the Church continues to bring the major humanitarian initiative programs there, including donating wheelchairs, teaching neonatal resuscitation, and overseeing projects to bring clean water to more villages.

Read more…

Pope formed Orem-based US Synthetics in 1978 and built the company into the world’s leading producer of synthetic diamond drill bits, a critical component in oil and gas exploration.  He is using the rewards of this success to bless the lives of others in a remote part of the world.  His entire family is behind the move and eager to help.

While working as a busy executive, Pope took the time to join a humanitarian aid project called Choice Humanitarian to rural Mexico in 1996 to help build a school.  Choice Humanitarian is based in West Jordan, Utah.  The experience was the first step in what became a life-changing journey for Pope. A year later, he went to Kenya with the same organization.

Pope has since returned more than 25 times to the former British colony on Africa’s east coast on a personal mission to help “the poorest of the poor,” he said.

During the past 10 years, Pope has established two Kenyan-based companies — Yehu Microfinance, which offers loans to women living in extreme poverty, and Coast Coconut Farms, which produces coconut oil using low-tech methods developed by a group of BYU engineering students as one of the school’s Capstone projects. Pope created a third company, Basa Body, based in the US Synthetics Orem plant, to use the coconut oil to make body lotion and similar products.

Coast Coconut Farms provides work for more than 100 Kenyan families, from farmers’ cooperatives to harvest coconuts to groups of micro-franchisees that operate small-scale oil presses.

Yehu Microfinance offers loans that average about $135 to women who have had no access to money lenders in the past to start small businesses. 17,000 women are currently employed (MormonTimes.com).

In January, 2010, Pope and his wife, Chriss, will take the next step when they move into a home they are building near Mombasa. They plan to live there nine months out of the year so Pope can focus his energy on his Kenyan businesses and perhaps launch some new ones — all of them designed to provide work for the Kenyan poor.  The Popes will be distancing themselves from their 5 children and 21 grandchildren, but will stay in touch via the internet.  Members of their family will make the trip for visits and extended stays to help with the work and experience the culture.

The presence of the LDS Church in the area — Mombasa has three branches — means the Popes can stay close to their faith. And as a former British colony, Kenya has two official languages — English and Swahili.

And they are building a beautiful house on a beautiful beach.

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

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.