Church of Jesus Christ helping women and children worldwide through innovative partnerships

SALT LAKE CITY — A few weeks ago, Sharon Eubank said she visited a young mother with a daughter who had been suffering from severe malnutrition. Although she had received medical care, her child’s health deteriorated again — something she said happens 80% of the time due to problems in the child’s environment.

Eubank, director of humanitarian services for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said a consortium created by the church used its strengths to help identify the root of the woman’s problem, and now she will no longer need to return for peanut paste for her daughter. The organizations helped her husband farm vegetables instead of rice and wheat, allowing the family to eat healthier and make an income by selling at the market.

“It transformed 20 people’s lives because of the project. And now, they don’t need aid because they have income,” she said.

Eubank said women and children are the most vulnerable, those who suffer most in a disaster and recover the slowest, and they need help — but the church also found that helping mothers and children can transform communities.

The church brought together eight globally recognized nonprofits and put them in four groups or consortia, each focused on projects benefiting women and children. These organizations are CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, Helen Keller International, iDE, MAP International, Save the Children, The Hunger Project and Vitamin Angels.

The church’s First Presidency asked the Relief Society to lead out in a global effort to help women and children in 2023, and one year ago, the church announced a $55.8 million donation to initiate the effort. General Relief Society President Camille N. Johnson announced on Thursday that the church will donate an additional $63.4 million to the project to help even more women and children around the world.

 

A greater impact

 

Sister Kristin Yee, second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, said 21.2 million women and children received vitamins through the effort, almost doubling the goal of 12 million. She said 1.87 million children were screened for malnutrition and 1.6 million mothers were trained on nutrition over the past year.

“It is such a blessing to be able to work together and collaborate on these important objectives. We’ve learned that as we work together in this space to create lasting change, we can leverage the strengths and resources of one another to be able to make a greater impact,” she said.

Eubank said the five-year goal is to reach 100 million women and children with vitamins. As part of a panel of leaders from the various charitable organizations who spoke Thursday, she pointed out that Jesus Christ broke cultural traditions by speaking with women and reaching out to children.

“There’s a doctrinal foundation for this kind of work,” Eubank said.

She said a baby can have all the nutrition in the world but still die from illness. However, she said collaborating with other humanitarian organizations can help the church expand its efforts and fill in gaps.

“We’ve never done it before. We’re learning a lot as we go, but it’s really been empowering,” Eubank said.

 

Access to more skills

 

Sarah Bouchie, president and CEO of Helen Keller International, said reaching a woman and helping her understand how to improve her life has powerful ripple effects. She said babies need more than just food to be healthy; they need support and a care system where someone else can step in when the mom is stressed.

She said just solving immediate problems doesn’t make as much of a difference as addressing what is underneath — teaching self-reliance, sustainability, food fortification and nutrition.

“If you don’t build the whole ecosystem, you don’t really get at these complex factors that lead to malnutrition itself,” Bouchie said.

Bouchie said the consortium brings complementary skill sets, allowing them to do more, which has been a wonderful opportunity. She said they are excited for it to continue, and the multi-year commitment can help them build better connections with local governments.

“We know that the impact is more sustainable and we have access to skills and talents that we don’t really have,” she said.

She also said the project reaches 12 countries, enabling her organization to share lessons learned with other parts of the world and build its staff.

Ana Céspdes, CEO of Vitamin Angels, said being part of this project helps her organization dream bigger, and it can now bring more interventions to people in more countries.

She said the way the groups are working together with the church is very innovative, and she has not seen a partnership making progress toward such an ambitious goal. Céspedes said the consortium is unique because the organizations are collaborating rather than working under one leading organization.

“I think it’s the future and how things should be done to maximize the effectiveness of the interventions,” she said.

 

Optimistic collaboration

 

President Johnson spoke about visiting one of the consortiums and seeing how three organizations helped pregnant mothers get vitamins and increased breastfeeding by teaching health care providers.

“These good people and their good people on the ground (are) working so hard and collaboratively,” she said.

She said the groups are helping mothers understand appropriate nutrition and allowing them to reinvest their knowledge in their families. She spoke about one woman with a subsidized chicken farm who now has a protein source for her family and the opportunity to sell eggs.

“I’m so hopeful and optimistic for the future because we are collaborating with the best of the best: people who are passionate about blessing the lives of our Heavenly Father’s children,” President Johnson said.