Mormons’ Church Service – 2011

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?

Mormon Humanitarian Aid Summary 2010

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.

Mormon Church Continues Aid to Haiti

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

Utah Mom Helps Albino Children in Africa

In the United States, just one child of 20,000 is born without pigmentation, a condition called albinism.  But in Kenya, the percentage is much higher due to intermarriage.  The condition is caused by a recessive gene; one recessive gene from the father, and one from the mother, and an albino child is born.  Some Africans believe that there is magic in the body parts of albinos, so there is an active black market for them (bringing $10,000 per child, and putting albino children at great risk).

Jami Quesenberry was a 47-year-old Mormon mother and homemaker who joined a charitable expedition to Kenya to help build schools.  While there, she saw a native mother with an albino child.  The child was in need of medical care because of her condition, plus ways to be protected from both violence and from the sun.  Quesenberry’s heart was touched, but she didn’t know what she could do to help.  Some months later, Koins for Kenya asked her to manage another expedition.  Remembering the mother and child, she heard that Hussein Lumbambo, was starting a school for albino children in Kinandaongo, a safe school with a high-walled dormitory for the students.  There had been a benefactor, but money had run out.

Quesenberry and her family went through their substantial amount of “stuff” and had a garage sale.  She is looking for other ways to raise funds.  There are probably 100 other albino children in the surrounding area.  The mother she had seen actually had two.  The father divorced her and chased her and the children with a machete.  They had found refuge behind the walls of the school grounds.  Word about the school and the protection it provides is getting around, and more children are being brought there.  Koins for Kenya is seeking personal sponsors for the children.

Bret Van Leeuwen, an Alpine businessman and founder of Koins for Kenya, said the school for albino children is purposefully located in a village that’s not easily accessible. He said when the school opens in January, he expects 80 children but is prepared for 100. [1]

Read more.

LDS Church Donates to Local Homeless Shelter

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.

LDS Church Helps 'Operation Smile'

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.

So that Newborns can Breathe

Winnipeg Canada Mormons Feed the Hungry

Hundreds of volunteers from the six Mormon congregations in Winnipeg, Canada,  picked up canned food and non-perishable items from residents of a dozen Winnipeg neighbourhoods.  The food will go to Winnipeg Harvest to feed the hungry.

This July, 2010, food drive is the fifth one supported by the city’s Mormons. The goal is to add 13,500 kilograms to the food bank’s supplies.  The food bank distributes food to more than 5,000 families weekly.  Flyers were distributed to 60,000 households in preparation for the drive.  Residents left food on their doorsteps to be picked up by the volunteers.

Latter-day Saints are prepared to help without making an extra trip to the grocery store.  For many years they have been urged by church leaders to lay up a store of food, clothing and fuel.  The method is to gradually stock up on the food the family eats on a regular basis until there is a three-months supply, then rotate through the pantry, so the supply is refreshed.  Emergency water rations can be stored in cleansed plastic containers that used to carry other products, or in containers purchased specifically to store water.  After the three months’ supply is in place, then the Chuch instructs its members to store a year’s supply of items that have a very long shelf life, so they don’t have to be rotated.  These items include wheat, dry beans, rice, sugar, salt, and honey.

Latter-day Saints also prepare 72-hour kits for emergency evacuations.  For more on emergency preparedness and food storage, go to MormonPreparedness.com.

BYU Students Harness Sun Power for Peruvians

The Peruvians who live on the floating reed islands of Lake Titicaca want for basic amenities.  19 BYU engineering students recently returned from Peru, where they set up sustainable projects to meet basic human needs.  BYU Global Engineering Outreach class/club has visited the Uros people on the floating islands before. A windmill power generator was installed by a previous class.

However, the villagers weren’t using it, gravely concerned about the lightning risks of having a tall metal pole in the middle of a lake on an island made of reeds.  The windmill, therefore was left in the hands of the local government, while another project was planned.  The locals can study it and hopefully install it on the shore and in some of the mountain villages.

Next year’s students will work on a solar-heated water tank and possibly a bio-filter toilet — the simple wishes of one of the mothers on the island.

Currently, the Uros make small reed fires or spend nearly a third of their small incomes on fuel for propane stoves.  The engineering students designed sun cooker prototypes and spoke with members from the village to identify locally available resources.  The sun cooker can boil 12 eggs in 30 minutes.

Vegetable Program Helps Bolivians

The Bolivia Altiplano is a remote region some 14,000 feet above sea level, home to an impoverished population.  Residents are enjoying a more healthy, balanced diet thanks to an LDS Church-sponsored greenhouse project that is bringing spinach, carrots and other vitamin-rich produce to a region where vegetables are typically scarce.  The people of the Bolivian Altiplano have long existed on a diet of meat and potatoes. The climate here is simply too harsh for traditional farming and reliable plant growth of most types of vegetables. As a result, many people here live in a perpetual state of vitamin starvation.

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]

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