Earthquake, hurricane, malnutrition focus of global Latter-day Saint humanitarian aid projects

Tad Walch
·4 min read
Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson, center, and her counselors, Sister J. Anette Dennis, left, and Sister Kristin M. Yee, right, talk about the Church's women and children global initiative during an interview in Salt Lake City on Monday, June 17, 2024.
Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson, center, and her counselors, Sister J. Anette Dennis, left, and Sister Kristin M. Yee, right, talk about the Church's women and children global initiative during an interview in Salt Lake City on Monday, June 17, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Recent news releases and reports illustrate how both instant relief and longer-term support are being provided by the humanitarian arms of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Emergency response

The church’s Just Serve website hosted a Hurricane Beryl Crisis Cleanup page to match volunteers with cleanup projects after the storm swept through the Caribbean and Texas last week.

The American Red Cross issued a news release that noted its emergency response to Hurricane Beryl was made possible by those who give to its Annual Disaster Giving Program. The ADGP makes it possible for the American Red Cross to prepare before disaster strikes.

The news release listed The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as one of the program’s $1 million members, the ADGP’s highest category. In addition to the church, other million-dollar members are Amazon; American Airlines; Anheuser-Busch Foundation; Bank of America; Caterpillar Foundation; CMA CGM Foundation; Costco Wholesale; Delta Air Lines; Elevance Health Foundation; Enterprise Mobility Foundation; FedEx; Lilly Endowment Inc.; Lowe’s Companies, Inc.; McDonald’s Corporation; Merck; Microsoft; Nationwide Foundation; The Pfizer Foundation; The Starbucks Foundation; State Farm; Takeda; Truist Foundation; VSP Vision; Walmart and the Walmart Foundation; Wells Fargo.

Long-term support

News coverage of earthquakes often dwindles as months pass, but the Church of Jesus Christ continues to provide support six months after an earthquake struck Nanao, a city in the country’s Ishikawa Prefecture, according to a news release.

The church is providing money and volunteer workers to help rebuild sacred religious shrines and temples in the area. It also is providing volunteers to help with the ongoing effort to clean up rubble.

In some cases, specialized contractors are necessary to save or demolish dangerous sites like titling buildings, and the Church of Jesus Christ is providing funds for demolition and repair costs.

For example, the church helped fund the demolition of the Mishima Kintohira Shrine, which was on the verge of collapse. Residents wanted to rebuild it but couldn’t afford the demolition costs. The effort included the rescue of historically valuable documents and materials.

The project has supported:

  • Two shrines, the Mishima Kintohira Shrine and the Nishinomiya Shrine.

  • Four Buddhist temples: Nichiren Buddhist Temple, the Kuonzan Chojuji Temple (Kojima Town), Jodo Shinshu Otani Shoganji Temple (Noto Island), and Jodo Shinshu Honganji Sect Phoenix Mountain Kokenji Temple (Noto Island).

  • Two temples, including repair to the roof of the main hall of the Kokenji Temple and reconstruction on the Shoganji Temple.

Mishima Kotohira Shrine building on the verge of collapse, photographed on January 31, 2024, nearly a month after the earthquake. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Mishima Kotohira Shrine building on the verge of collapse, photographed on January 31, 2024, nearly a month after the earthquake. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ also provide volunteers to help during two service projects last month. The church’s Helping Hands volunteers from two stakes, or groups of congregations, cleared rubble at the Jodo Sosainenji Temple.

Later, the church provided a truck and Latter-day Saint Helping Hands volunteers who worked alongside other volunteer groups, including Buddhists, to salvage tiles from the roof of the Sainenji Temple, a historic building originally constructed in the 1500s. The roof collapsed in the earthquake and vast amounts of debris had to be removed by hand. In all, the groups removed nine truckloads of rubble and preserved the roof tiles.

Fighting global malnutrition in children

Earlier this year, the Relief Society General Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ announced a donation of $55.8 million to expand its global initiative to improve maternal and child health worldwide, working with eight partners in 12 countries. The money is expected to improve the health and well-being of 12 million children and 2.7 million women.

The project began as a local effort to help babies in Guatemala and the Philippines and now has expanded to a total of 17 countries. It has four pillars — nutrition, maternal and newborn care, immunizations and education. The nutrition effort in Central America supports more than 6,000 children and mothers in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Overall impact

Humanitarian relief and other aid from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints totaled $1.36 billion in 2023, according to an annual report released in March.

The amount spent represented a 33% increase compared to 2022, when the church’s humanitarian and welfare spending reached $1.02 billion in 2022.

The report said the church provided 4,119 humanitarian projects in 191 countries. It also organized 6.2 million hours of volunteer service.

The report also noted the church had 11,368 welfare and self-reliance missionaries in 2023.