Church Makes Major Famine-Relief Donation
Hadja Zena Mahamadou inspects the relief items that CARE distributed that day in the village of Gagamari. These include mats, blankets, kitchen supplies, soap, mosquito nets, and buckets. This is her eighth pregnancy. However, only three children have survived. The 30-year-old woman comes from Damassak, a town in northern Nigeria. Ibrahim Boukari manages CARE’s work in eastern Niger and is content that the distribution went smoothly. “It is important to support these people; they have lost everything.”
Article Highlights
- LDS Charities is partnering with key nongovernmental and faith-based organizations.
- The Church’s donation will benefit more than 1.1 million people for up to a year.
“What a wonderful opportunity we have to give of our substance to those who are suffering, to lighten their burdens and let them know that we care.” —Jean B. Bingham, Relief Society General President
The Church is providing an additional $11 million in assistance for famine victims in eight countries in Africa and the Middle East.
The aid announcement was made Wednesday, September 27, after the donation was approved by the First Presidency to provide assistance to areas of the world experiencing drought, civil conflict, disease, and other challenges, according to a Mormon Newsroom release.
LDS Charities, the humanitarian arm of the Church, is partnering with 11 global relief organizations to support 25 projects in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen, Niger, Kenya, Uganda, and DR Congo.
“During our recent visits to Africa, we have seen firsthand the importance of helping to meet the needs of our brothers and sisters who face great challenges and difficult circumstances,” said Bishop Gérald Caussé, Presiding Bishop of the Church. “Contributions from our faithful members provide funding for food, shelter, clean water, medical care, and other life-sustaining supplies for more than a million people—including severely malnourished children.”
Nearly a year of fighting and fuel shortages has destroyed water pipes and water pumping facilities, so CARE is rehabilitating water sources and providing water tanks so women and children do not have to travel long distances to collect water. These young girls fill their jerry cans with water from a tank provided by CARE. ©ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The Church’s donation of cash and commodities will benefit more than 1.1 million people for up to a year, the release said.
LDS Charities is partnering with key nongovernmental and faith-based organizations, including CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, Convoy of Hope, International Rescue Committee, Islamic Relief USA, Rahma Relief, Real Medicine Foundation, Save the Children, UNICEF USA, USA for UNHCR, and the World Food Programme.
“What a wonderful opportunity we have to give of our substance to those who are suffering, to lighten their burdens and let them know that we care. And how grateful we are for partners of like mind who help us serve those in places we cannot reach on our own,” said Sister Jean B. Bingham, Relief Society General President.
LDS Charities is partnering with 11 global relief organizations to support 25 projects in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen, Niger, Kenya, Uganda, and DR Congo.
A medical practitioner uses a mid upper-arm circumference measuring tape on a child, indicating severe acute malnutrition at a mobile clinic at a temporary settlement for families who have been forced to move because of drought near the town of Ainabo, Somalia. © UNICEF/UN057372/Holt.
People wait to fill containers with water at a borehole provided by UNICEF in the Muna Dalti Internally Displaced People’s camp, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria. © UNICEF/UN055940/Gilbertson.
LDS Charities is partnering with Save the Children to provide needed famine relief in Yemen. © ALI ASHWAL/SAVE THE CHILDREN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Save the Children staff member checks a child for malnutrition in Yemen. © Save the Children. All rights reserved.
A young girl is measured with a mid-upper arm circumference armband to determine her nutrition status at a site in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria. The red section of the armband indicates that she is at risk for severe acute malnutrition. © UNICEF/UN025789/Esiebo.
Displaced women queue with containers for clean water from a UNICEF and ECHO-supported clean-water tank at the internally displaced peoples camp in Galkayo, Somalia. Over 500,000 people in Somalia have been forced to leave their homes in search of food and water. © UNICEF/UN061108/Knowles-Cours.
Local women and children in the village of Nguel Kolo in Diffa, eastern Niger. Water is precious in the Sahel, and the host communities such as these women of Nguel Kolo now have to share their resources with over 100,000 refugees and returnees from northern Nigeria. CARE’s water and sanitation efforts to support refugees and host communities include water trucking to a refugee camp, the distribution of jerry cans and buckets to safely transport and store water, and the rehabilitation of water points. Photo by Frederic Courbet.
Women wait with their children at the Dalaram health and malnutrition clinic run by the government and supported by UNICEF in Old Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria, Thursday, March 2, 2017. © UNICEF/UN055933/Gilbertson.
LDS Charities is partnering with Convoy of Hope on several projects to address immediate needs of the people suffering from the famines in Africa, including the countries of Somalia and South Sudan.
Food arrives at a Rahma Relief warehouse in Yemen.
LDS Charities and Rahma Relief have partnered to provide food to needy families in Yemen.
Children in Bidi Bidi.
A woman in the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement in Uganda enjoys a mango.
