With many disasters and severe weather incidents, 2011 was an active year for Mormons’ church service around the world.

The earthquake and devastating tsunami in Japan was the worst disaster of the year, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent immediate aid and still continues to help.  The LDS Church provided more than 250 tons of supplies, food, water, blankets, bedding, hygiene items, clothing and fuel. Church-sponsored volunteers numbering over 20,000 have donated 175,000 hours of service in Japan.  Church Humanitarian Services has worked with and continues to donate equipment and supplies to 20 of 54 fishing co-ops wiped out by the disaster.  Latter-day Saints within Japan mobilized to help their stricken neighbors.  Fifty-two Mormon meetinghouses were also damaged and have since been repaired.

Other disasters struck different parts of the world, which experienced flooding, landslides, earthquakes, tornadoes and a hurricane (Irene). They occurred in Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Brazil and the Philippines, as well as the Midwest and southern United States. Latter-day Saints in each of these areas also donated their time and efforts.  “Mormon Helping Hands” is the name of groups of Mormons gathered to help in relief efforts on the ground.  They can mobilize locally or travel, sometimes at their own expense.

In Germany, 9,000 Latter-day Saints and their neighbors worked side-by-side to donate 34,000 hours in support of children battling cancer.    (Read about other Mormon Helping Hands projects.)

2011 was the tenth anniversary of the formation of the Perpetual Education Fund, funded by donations from Latter-day Saints.  This fund helps with schooling expenses for returned-missionaries from impoverished countries.  The money is loaned to them, so they can afford advanced education.  The loan is paid back as they join the work force, and then loaned to the next worthy young person.  Thousands have achieved better employment through this program since its inception.

Additional Resources

Basic Mormon Beliefs — Official LDS Church Website

Mitt Romney’s Mormon Charity — Where Does it Go?

Eight months after the earthquake and tsunami hit in Japan, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (inadvertently called by friends of other faiths, the “Mormon Church“) contributed donations to the fishermen of Kuji and the small village of Noda Mura in Japan.

The fisherman in those cities were devastated when the tsunami destroyed almost all of their equipment. The Church donated “three trucks, 4,500 nets, 3,000 octopus cages and various other fishing supplies to the local fishermen’s cooperative” to the city of Kuji, and “trucks with refrigeration equipment and fish tanks, a fork lift, a large-volume digital scale and 70 large containers for hauling the day’s catch” in Noda Mura. In Kuji, the head of the fisherman’s co-op, Kenichiro Saikachi, thanked the Church saying, “For us who received the shock of this great disaster, the donation today from your church is a reassuring act of kindness.” This is a part of the ongoing effort of the Church in contributing to the welfare of those affected by the disaster in Japan. “Both the mayor and the head of the co-op were visibly moved by the help they had received from people they were not aware of before the earthquake and tsunami.”

To read the full story, please visit the official Mormon news website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Learn more about the Church humanitarian aid program.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (inadvertently called by friends of other faiths, the “Mormon Church“) is working together with other organizations, to assist in drought relief efforts in Africa. Millions are in need of assistance as the past several years have been harsh drought conditions. The Church partnering to provide water, hygiene kits, medical supplies, as well as medical training. the Church is also working on projects in the future that would help the people of Africa be more self-reliant. These projects include digging wells, installing pumps, and sanitizing water. This example of assistance given by the Church and other organizations, shows that there is a great need for additional Christ like assistance around the world.

 With an estimated 13 million people in Eastern Africa in need of assistance, the conditions there being the driest recorded in the past 50 years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is working with various other organizations to coordinate the distribution of aid in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda.

In Dadaab, Kenya, the world’s largest complex of refugee camps is already full, with an estimated half million people living there. Tens of thousands of people are living outside of the complex due to lack of space and supplies. In September, an average of 1,000 people arrived each day.

For a full report, please visit the official Mormon news website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormons”)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church), contributed to disaster relief in 58 countries during 2010.  The Welfare Services Emergency Response Report shows that the LDS Church responded to 119 disasters and provided millions of dollars in emergency aid.

Disasters worldwide claimed the lives of nearly 300,000 people in 2010, making it the deadliest year in the last 25.  There were about 350 natural disasters.  Two hundred million people were affected, and disasters caused about $100 billion worth of damage. 

Earthquakes took center stage with temblors in Haiti and Chile, and New Zealand.  The Mormon Church continues to send relief to Haiti.  The most widespread type of disaster globally was flooding.  Pakistan, China, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as Central America and northern South America, suffered from devastating floods, as has the United States.  There were two major cholera outbreaks, one in Haiti and one in Papua New Guinea. 

The humanitarian aid efforts of the Mormon Church are made possible through the generous donations of members and friends of the Church. One hundred percent of all contributions are used to help those in need.

It has been one year since the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti.  Recovery has barely begun, set back by a serious cholera epidemic and non-existent government performance.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is often the first on the ground and last to leave when natural disasters strike — relief work is still ongoing in southeast Asia many years after a tsunami took hundreds of thousands of lives.  The Church is still providing relief in Haiti.

“We’re in as good or better of a place as any NGO,” said Lynn Samsel, the church’s director of humanitarian emergency response and community services. [1]

The Church has authorized the construction of a “bishop’s storehouse” in Haiti’s capital, Port au Prince.  Though the Church has approved a ground-breaking for the building, Haitian government approval is still pending.  Bishop’s storehouses have a supply of foodstuffs, clothing, and other necessities provided through the charity of the members of the Church.  When people are in need, they may apply to the bishop of the local congregation.  With the help of congregation leaders, the needy assess their needs and fill out an order form to be filled at the storehouse.

“Fast offerings” are used to finance charity for the poor who are members of the Church.  Members fast for two meals on one Sunday each month, and then they donate the monetary value of the meals to the Church for the care of the poor.  In Haiti, bishops of congregations are now obtaining supplies locally with the use of fast offerings.

The Church has also been trying to build temporary shelters, but only 10-15% of the rubble from the quake has been cleared.  Because so many people died, and so many records were destroyed, it is often difficult to determine ownership of usable land.

The Church has been striving to rehabilitate its own members on the island.  Three hundred fifty-six have been placed in jobs and 296 in self-employment. Business partnerships are continuing as others are being trained in new and much-needed skills, such as welding and construction.  The Church is also investigating the possibility of creating church schools, since the infrastructure, including the education of children, crumbled along with homes and schools.  In the meantime, the church has distributed thousands of school kits and has helped fund some training of new teachers in Haiti.

Clean water has been an important issue, brought to the eyes of the developed world by news of the outbreak of cholera.  LDS humanitarian shipments have included shipping large water systems, water-filtration bottles and bags, soap and treatment products and prevention/education materials and supplies.  The Church is also fine-tuning its medical aid response by studying the effectiveness of the original medical teams sent over immediately after the earthquake.  The Church is learning which medical supplies are most needed, and how to coordinate staff pulled together from various locations.

LDS humanitarian aid to Haiti has included the following:

FOOD/WATER: 1 million pounds, 13 pallets of kitchen/cooking sets, 16,000 water-filtration bottles

MEDICAL: 25 pallets of medical supplies, 110,000 hygiene kits, 4,300 first-aid kits

SHELTER: 3,000 tents, 4,000 tarps

BEDDING: 13,000 blankets, 600 quilts, 48 cots,

COMFORT/CARE: 9,400 newborn kits, two pallets of toys

EDUCATION: 800 school kits

And later, specifically for cholera response, the LDS Church sent:

MEDICAL: five large medical tents

WATER: three large water-purification systems; 8,500 water-filtration bottles, with 5,000 extra filters; water-filtration bags and extra filters; water-filtration pumps and extra filters

HYGIENE: 390 cases of hand soap, 17,000 hygiene kits

EDUCATION: Cholera-education kits with instructions in French and Haitian Creole

Cholera epidemics have broken out in island nations in two hemispheres, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is lending a helping hand.  The Church is sending humanitarian aid to Papua New Guinea and Haiti.

The death toll in Haiti is in the thousands, and the death toll in Papua New Guinea is in the hundreds, with 75 casualties among members of the Church.  As of December 10, 2010, the Church had sent 25 tons of emergency food and medical supplies to the affected regions.  The church’s Salt Lake City Humanitarian Center shipped to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 2,500 water bottles, to be used in making stream and catchment water clean enough to drink.

In Papua New Guinea, the Church is working with AusAID, Médecins Sans Fronti?es/Doctors Without Borders, the World Health Organization and other groups.  In Haiti, the LDS Church is providing a shipment of tents, large water-filtration units, rehydration salts and hygiene supplies, in addition to aid already provided to the area.   The cholera outbreak is the latest in a series of disasters befalling Haiti since the January 12, 2010, earthquake that killed an estimated 230,000, injured some 300,000 and resulted in a million Haitians being left homeless.  The Church has provided continuous aid since the original disaster.

The South Provo homeless shelter is only about 30 miles from the Salt Lake City headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Brent Crane, executive director of the Food and Care Coalition received an e-mail from Church Humanitarian Services and LDS Charities in November, 2010, announcing a donation of $341,000.  The donation would arrive immediately to go toward its transitional housing center in south Provo.  The goal is to get more people off the streets this winter.

The homeless shelter still has not reached its goal of $700,000 in donations, but the offering from the Church is a big leap.  Crane must prove that he has enough money to operate for one year before the board of directors will allow the upper floor to be opened to homeless singles and couples.  The LDS Charities donation will be enough to finish off the living quarters that will house 26 homeless men and 12 homeless women.

The funds will go for construction and finishing materials and furnishings.  The coalition leadership had contacted the LDS Charities several months ago.  Funds come from the volutary donations of members of the Church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced on October 27, 2010, that it would donate more than $900,000 to Operation Smile.  The money comes from the donations of church members to the LDS humanitarian aid fund.

Operation Smile sends operating teams to third world countries to correct cleft palates in children.  This particular effort will benefit children in Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Jordan.  During the coming year, this donation will be enough to help 3,864 children.  These four countries were selected by the Church for specific reasons — (1) the great needs of the children there; (2) Operation Smile has already scheduled medical missions there; and (3) The LDS Church already has a history of humanitarian service in those countries.  The Church will also urge church members with medical expertise to volunteer in those areas and will also receive help from church members living in those countries.

Operation Smile, is a nonprofit, international medical charity founded in 1982.  It has a presence in more than 60 countries, with some $60 million in annual donations.  The medical staff provides safe, effective reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities, such as cleft lip and cleft palate.  These children otherwise have no hope for their deformities to be corrected.  Many have trouble eating and speaking, and many do not attend school, because they are outcasts.  In the past, the Mormon Church has given a total of $275,000 to Operation Smile through the LDS Foundation.

The Church has also helped in other ways.  LDS full-time missionaries are able to speak the languages in the countries Operation Smile visits.  They have often assisted the organization with various behind-the-scenes volunteer duties.

Operation Smile has already assisted 150,000 children.  The Utah chapter is the oldest, having been founded in 1984.  For more information, or to make a donation, go to www.operationsmile.org.

The Mormon Church has no members in Pakistan, and no meeting houses, temples or welfare centers.  Thus, there is no church infrastructure on the ground in Pakistan to help distribute aid or to inform the Church as to where aid is needed. 

Therefore, the LDS Church has partnered with International Relief and Development, International Medical Corps and Saba Aslam Welfare and Trust to locally purchase and distribute immediate relief supplies.

Additional supplies from the Humanitarian Center in Salt Lake City will be shipped in the coming weeks, in partnership with Islamic Relief USA. 

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Pakistan,” said Presiding Bishop H. David Burton, who oversees humanitarian efforts. “The generous donations of church members and others is allowing the church to provide aid that will relieve the suffering of many people.”

“Heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan triggered the worst flooding in 80 years, beginning in late July. More than a third of the country has been impacted, and more than 1,500 people have died; 17 million others have been directly affected.” [1]

One hundred percent of the donations given to the church’s humanitarian services are used for relief efforts. The LDS Church absorbs its own overhead costs.  The help the Church is able to give around the world regardless of their culture or religion is due to the generousity of its members.