Mormon Church Helps Fight Cholera

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.

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.

Mormon Singles Provide Humanitarian Aid

Tyler DeLange, a life-long member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and an emergency room M.D., has not yet met the woman of his dreams.  There are many activities for single adults in the Mormon Church, but service projects are the most worthwhile. DeLange decided to launch his own.  Called Singular Humanitarian Experience, Dr. DeLange’s fledgling non-profit organization, attracts single Mormons to the third world to provide several kinds of service.

The organization’s first project was launched among the poor of Polochic Valley of Guatemala.  The group built a brand new two room school.  DeLange tended to the sick.  The group dug the foundation for the area’s first hospital and helped to teach local villagers the basics of midwifery, dentistry and emergency medical care. Schoolteachers conducted development workshops for the area’s education professionals. Business specialists helped native women to design their own business plans.

The organization will next begin serving in Bolivia and Nepal. Young LDS singles from all over the world have flocked to sign up for the expeditions.

Read more.

LDS Mom Helps Lepers in India

Becky Douglas has turned a tragic event into a charitable project helping many in India.  Becky’s oldest daughter, Amber, took her own life in college, ending a struggle with bi-polar disorder.  When Becky was sorting through Amber’s possessions, she discovered that Amber had sponsored an orphan in India.  She requested donations for the orphanage in lieu of flowers for Amber’s funeral.  So much money was collected that Douglas was asked to serve on the orphanage’s board of directors.  She decided she had better make a trip to India.

During the trip, Becky discovered that the orphanage was well-run and that the children were well cared for.  However, her heart bled when she saw lepers begging in the streets.  She discovered that people with leprosy are outcasts, and that their children also become untouchable, living in the leprosy colonies with their parents.  She decided to do something.  She called four close friends, and together they created Rising Star Outreach, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving leprosy victims in India and their children.

Leprosy is curable and easily treated.  India provides care for lepers.  But many are too ashamed to seek help.  They become outcasts and beggars.  Becky decided on a three-pronged approach — 1- to provide mobile medical care for people living in the colonies; 2- to create a safe learning environment for the children of lepers; and 3- to offer micro-loans to lepers to wean them from begging into gainful work.  The work is moving forward, thanks to volunteers from all over the world.

Because of Rising Star, lepers have access to clean bandages and medications.  The mobile units also check for other diseases and conditions and seek to discover leprosy when it’s just begun, thus possibly preventing physical signs of the disease. 

Rising Star gives colony kids a separate place to live and go to school, protecting them from the disease through separation and clean environs.  At school they learn English and computer skills.  There are nearly 200 children in Rising Star’s primary and secondary schools.  Rising Star has partnered with people in India to help with the micro-loan program.  Rising Star has been invited to open facilities in nearly every state in India.  To date, the organization has helped around 20,000 people.

Rising Star can be contacted at risingstaroutreach.org.

To read the full article in LDS Living on Rising Star Outreach, click here.

LDS Living Magazine editor Jamie Lawson visited India and has written about the experience in three parts, including a video.  You can see the articles at the following links:

The Untouchables, Part 1

The Untouchables, Part 2

The Untouchables, Part 3

The Untouchables Video

Mormon Church Gets Aid into Pakistan

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.

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.

Mormon Helping Hands in Slovenia

Members in all three branches in Ljubljana joined with a national effort to clean up Slovenia. Wearing their yellow Helping Hands vests, members from Ljubljana joined with members in the Maribor and Celje branches to help to clean up Slovenia in a day of service on April 17, 2010. [1]

The Church offered widespread support, including the full-time missionaries and President David H. Hill of the mission.  The service included rubbish clean-up projects in several areas, including Hill Roznik, behind the city park Tivoli and the Heracles temple in the park.  In the entire country, 250,000 people participated in the clean-up project, and the government sponsored festivities for the participants.

LDS Church Responds to Earthquake in Chile

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are determining how the Church can be of most assistance in the wake of one of the most powerful earthquakes of the last century. With over half a million Latter-day Saints living in Chile, the Church has a substantial presence.  There are well over 100 Mormon missionaries in the country.  They were well prepared for the quake through the guidance of the Holy Spirit given to their mission president, who was warned ahead of time by the Lord that the disaster was coming.  All safe and accounted for, they were able to render assistance to their neighbors almost immediately.

“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.  [Later reports confirmed 7 church members dead and one missing.]

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.

Update: March 3, 2010

Food supplies are being pulled from Bishop’s storehouses in locations in Chile for delivery to earthquake-stricken areas.  Six tons of food were delivered Tuesday to the city of Talca to help meet needs in several cities north of Concepcion. A second shipment of 20 tons of food was to reach Concepcion later Tuesday.  Also, two additional shipments of food have been sent to affected areas south of Concepcion.

Update: March 17, 2010

An airlift of tents, tarps, diapers and other supplies sent by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Chilean government arrived in Santiago from Miami on Monday, 15 March. The supplies had been specifically requested by the previous Chilean government and will provide relief in the wake of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile in February.  The Church’s Chile area presidency, which directs the work of the Church throughout Chile, met with Rodrigo Hinzpeter, Chile’s new interior minister, and Cristobal Lira, the general coordinator of donations, to formally donate the shipment. The ministers expressed their gratitude for all the Church was doing to help the Chilean people.

Local Church leaders are also continuing to coordinate the delivery of food, water and other supplies provided locally from bishops’ storehouses in Chile to affected areas, including the Juan Fernandez Islands, which were hit by a major tsunami. Several tons of relief supplies have already been provided by the Church from resources in country.  Still, nearly 450 Church members are temporarily using 25 Church meetinghouses as living quarters.

Update: April 19, 2010

Click here to read a piece about the Mormon missionaries in Chile, the protection they were blessed with, and the service they were able to provide.

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Mormons Remember 1985 Fast for Ethiopians

2010 is the 25th anniversary of an especially successful and heartwarming humanitarian aid project funded by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Leaders of the LDS Church visited a feeding camp in Ethiopia which housed 120,000 refugees.  30,000 more were trying to be admitted.  The people were hollow-eyed and starving.  The Church had called upon its members to hold a special fast and to donate the money that would have been spent on meals to the starving people in Ethiopia.  Latter-day Saints fast on the first Sunday of each month, anyway, and then donate the money saved on skipped meals to the Church for the support of the poor.  That day is called “fast Sunday” by members of the Church.  This special fast brought in donations of $6 million US dollars from Latter-day Saints worldwide.

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.

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