On Friday, Oct. 29, Latter-day Saint Charities pledged a 12-month contribution to a community center in Central Australia to support its ongoing work of assisting those in need.
The Waterhole is a community center run by the Salvation Army in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia, that provides worship services, youth programs, showers and washing machine services, an art studio and gallery space for local artists, food and other community services to individuals and families, many from Indigenous communities.
The 12 months of supplies donated by Latter-day Saint Charities to The Waterhole will include hygiene kits, clothing and commercial quantities of laundry powder, rolled oats and soup to the Salvation Army-run center.
Alice Springs Corps Maj. Rhonda Clutterbuck described the initiative as “a real blessing,” in an article published by the Salvation Army about the donation.
“They might be seemingly small things, but it adds up [financially] because of the nature of our community,” Clutterbuck said. “They’re things we use every day and we go through a lot every day.”
Elder Paul Lekias, an Area Seventy, called the partnership “a beautiful joint collaboration.”
In an article published on the Pacific Newsroom, Elder Lekias said, “We are grateful for our friends in the Salvation Army for their examples of Christian service to others. We hope that the supplies we are providing will help them in their important work to relieve suffering and bring hope to individuals and families in need.”
Riki Tukukino, the Church’s welfare and self-reliance manager for Southern/Central Australia, said it was planned that 8,300 hygiene kits — containing soap, shampoo, conditioner, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a washcloth and a shaving razor — will be donated over the next 12 months.
About 1,000 of the kits, assembled by Church members in Alice Springs, were presented at the event announcing the partnership. Another 1,000 are expected by the end of the year.
Read more about the partnership here.
