Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson announced an additional $65 million in donation funding on Friday, Aug. 7, to the Church’s initiative to help women and children.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invited leaders from seven global humanitarian and nongovernmental organizations to participate in its second annual Caring for Women and Children Initiative Consortium at the Church Office Building on Temple Square on Thursday, Aug. 6, and Friday, Aug. 7.
“Because of the impact and change the strong collaboration established and our confidence in this important work. I am pleased to announce a year-three commitment of $65 million,” President Johnson said.
This brings the Church’s total investment in this unique project to $184 million over three years. Last year, the Church announced a $63 million donation at the first gathering of the consortia.
The results of the initiative thus far have shown President Johnson what she said can happen when “people come together in a spirit of compassion.”
Blaine Maxfield, managing director of the Church’s Welfare and Self-Reliance Service Department, recognized the leaders of the various organizations working with the Church across 12 countries in Africa and Asia.
“The true impact of this work is found in individual lives,” Maxfield said. “This is what matters most.”
He said the gathering celebrates the progress being made across the globe while still understanding there is much work left to do.
“Lasting change occurs when individuals, families and communities are empowered to care for themselves and one another,” he said.
The Church’s announced donation of $65 million in donations for the coming year is indicative of the Church’s commitment to the work that has been done and that will be done moving forward.
“There is still important work ahead of us,” Maxfield said.
President Johnson said that helping 52 million women and children has been a tremendous undertaking. One point she hoped individuals will consider is that it hasn’t been one effort to collectively bless 52 million people. It has been a shared effort to bless 52 million individual children of Heavenly Father.
“We believe that every person is a beloved child of God,” President Johnson said. That knowledge inspires Church members to help build lives of hope and opportunity, she said.
Turning to those in attendance representing the seven organizations working with the Church, President Johnson expressed her feelings of gratitude.
“Thank you for your friendship, your leadership, and your unwavering commitment to this work,” she said.
Group learnings panel discussion
Following the initial remarks by President Johnson and Maxfield, leaders from some of the organizations joined President Johnson in a panel discussion about what they have learned, seen and felt over the past three years.
Heather Danton, the director for food security and nutrition at CARE, compared working with other organizations in the consortium to a beehive.
“Bees each bring a unique strength to the hive for a higher good,” she said. The outcomes sought by the consortia come from “being able to layer these areas of expertise that no one organization has.”
Beyond the Church and the organizations it works with, Danton said the work extends to communities, schools, governments and others as they collaborate.
Dr. Winifred Mwebesa is the senior managing director of global health for Save the Children. She said the involvement of different organizations is good and that they share the hope that they can empower communities and then move to the next need.
“Communities need ownership of the processes and the outcomes,” she said.
As the organizations work together, they avoid creating parallel systems by feeding into existing priorities of communities, Mwebesa said.
Timing is also an important part of the consortium’s success. Mwebesa explained that getting involved early enough at the individual and community level is part of what helps ensure that changes are generational and not dependent on any organization having a permanent presence.
Ana Céspedes is the CEO of Vitamin Angels.
“Each one of these organizations are superstars,” Céspedes said. And as groups that excel in their field, she said, the group is then able to help make transformative changes wherever it goes.
One example comes as the group works to transform lives through nutrition. Céspedes spoke of the need for micronutrients in newborn children. She said that providing a simple vitamin A supplement can reduce mortality rate of children under the age of 5 by 24%.
The part of the three-year project that has impressed her the most, however, is the way the groups have worked together under shared values.
“This makes us share values and share concerns with each other and about each other and about the communities that we serve,” she said.
Notwithstanding the good that has been done over the past three years, Céspedes said, she hopes that individuals will pay attention to how it is all coming about.
“I wish that people understood more profoundly the work the Church is doing in these communities,” she said. “This is an innovative initiative. It is going to gain and is gaining more recognition for the health of women and children on a global scale.”
Reed Peterson, CEO of iDE, has been in his role for only a few months. But he said the work he has seen is impressive.
“Working with these ladies and working with this consortium is truly an honor,” he said.
Peterson said he recently spent a month seeing the work done in different parts of Africa and came away with an appreciation for the way the groups are working together for long-term success.
“When we create long-term, sustainable change, you have increased economic impact,” he said.
For those who are looking for a way to help out closer to home, Peterson said the need likely exists closer than they realize.
“What about your street? What about your neighborhood? What about your area?” he said.
Looking for a place to serve will open up doors that might not seem obvious, he said. And going through the process to find a way to use talents and resources will also change the heart of those who serve, he said.
Jenna Recuber, deputy CEO of The Hunger Project, spoke about the way women bear a great responsibility around the world to care for those in their homes.
“Women in households bear the primary responsibility for meeting basic needs,” she said. “When a woman is supported with knowledge, she does not keep it to herself.”
In one case, Recuber said, a group of 3,500 mothers in Ghana have become educators in their country and in their communities. They have helped create mother-to-mother support groups. Mwebesa said she sees the same thing as women create WhatsApp groups to share health information with each other.
Recuber said one group has helped mothers “to speak openly about their feelings after childbirth.”
Through the groups they are able to support each other with both physical and mental health needs, she said.
President Johnson said that watching representatives from the organizations as they serve has helped her see Christlike characteristics exhibited.
“I am very impressed by the humility of these people who are experts in their field and their willingness to go to the ground and ask people, ‘What do you need? What do you think will help us resolve this situation?’” President Johnson said.
Danton said that kind of communication helps the group know how to invite adjustments to everyday behaviors that can have permanent results.
“Sustained outcomes or improved outcomes for nutrition really do rely on making changes in the way people do things,” she said.
And then talking with those who make those changes can reveal more than the simple passing on of knowledge, Peterson explained.
“To hear in their voices the self-confidence they have, the self-dignity,” he said.
As they learn to do tasks that benefit others in their communities, “they have been able to create income and now they have something to pass down to their children and then watch children learn the same skill,” he said.
President Johnson closed with an observation.
“Women universally hope for healthy children. They hope that their families will be free of disease,” she said. Working with others who share that hope has created both professional relationships and life-long friendships.
“I count them all as my friends,” she said of those in the consortium.
And for those looking for their own way to make a difference, don’t look too far from home, she invited.
“My invitation to all of you is to recognize the one,” she said. “There are women who cannot read in your community. There are children who are hungry in your community. So if we’ll each look for the one, that is the way we will address these challenges.”
