SALT LAKE CITY — Improving the lives of women and young children throughout the world has been a focus of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for several years now.
Today, that global initiative got even bigger.
This was a first-time event. Today, 8 nonprofit organizations met in Salt Lake. The Relief Society and Church Humanitarian Services welcomed their NGO partners to announce the results of their efforts in 2024 and increased funding for 2025.
Relief Society General President Camille Johnson announced that the Church is donating another $63.4 million to this worldwide project.
The goal was to provide vitamins and nutrition to 12 million mothers and children in 12 countries. These 8 charity organizations exceeded expectations by serving 21.2 million.
Other notable results include:
- 21.2 million children and mothers received vitamins.
- 1.87 million children were screened for malnutrition and treated if needed.
- 1.6 million mothers were trained in nutrition best practices.
- 219,000 pregnant mothers received prenatal care.
- 141,000 families received seeds, training or now have home gardens with more nutrient-dense foods.
- 41,000 people were trained in improved hygiene behaviors.
- 17,000 government health workers were trained to support maternal and newborn care, child nutrition, breastfeeding, and the administration of vitamins.
- 6,800 people benefited from improved water and sanitation facilities.
- 159 newborns were resuscitated at birth.
- 125 health facilities were trained to track clinical cases of malnutrition and provide treatment.
Camille Johnson explained, “I have such great hope for the future, because we are really tackling problems at their elementary level with an eye towards breaking a cycle, a cycle of undernourished mothers, a cycle of malnourished children. This is a new model. Rather than these NGOs competing for our funding dollars, they are actually working together. And what I saw in Nepal and what we’re hearing generally is that they are sharing best practices, they’re sharing what they’re learning, they’re sharing government contacts.”
Lizz Welch, CEO of iDE said, “It has been phenomenal as a leader of an organization to see how easily we can work together to be able to do this. We just needed the table laid for us and we’re so grateful to the Church for that.”
They all came together for a panel discussion this afternoon discussing their shared vision and the reason they focus on women in each country because the women want a better future for their families. If you are interested in helping this initiative or assisting your community, here is a link: caring.churchofjesuschrist.org
