Church Humanitarian Aid in Central Europe

 

We are called as Welfare and Self-Reliance missionaries for the French and Dutch speaking areas of Europe: Luxembourg, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Welfare, in this context, means humanitarian work.

The Church’s humanitarian efforts are now focused on helping mostly women and young children. In teaching Global Women’s Studies, Delys learned that if countries want peace and prosperity, the key is with the women. Money that the women control goes to help families. If the women are doing well (have enough food, education, good health, good pregnancies, etc.) the families will thrive, and the country will have more peace.

We humanitarian missionaries are looking for projects that will help women and children (and refugees and homeless) become more self-reliant. We want to partner with others, especially members of the Church and established charities, who can help in these projects. We are working with first-world countries:  The Netherlands, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and  Luxembourg. Even these rich countries have need for humanitarian work, considering the large numbers of refugees and immigrants who are not part of the country’s regular system of jobs, health care, education, etc.

In a few weeks we will attend a 4-stake conference of Relief Society women in the Netherlands. They have organized some great projects for all the sisters to help with, including art kits for homeless children and hygiene kits for needy mothers. They are also creating baby boxes for new babies. These boxes have sheets, blankets, and other needs for newborns. The Church’s humanitarian arm is financing all of these projects.

If you have ideas for projects in these countries that go beyond the hygiene kits (which are valuable too), please let us know. What are meaningful ways we can help these at-risk people? Are people in your area or an area you know about doing meaningful things to help women and children?

Since we work closely with humanitarian aid, we see why 100% of donations go to help people. One reason is that hundreds of senior missionaries serve for free. We met many couples in the Missionary Traning Center getting ready to serve in the Phillipines, Ghana, Cambodia, New York, Mexico, and Jamaica. Here in Europe we have met those who serve in countries in our Europe Central area: Greece, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain, Montenegro, Turkey, and more. These are people who have done amazing things in their lives, and they are now donating 1-2 years of their retirement to live in these countries and help the needy people of the world. What an amazing group!

In Central Europe, missionaries have helped get funding for new clothes washing equipment for refugee housing, pregnant heifer cows for families so they can have milk and sell the extra, greenhouses so families can extend their growing period, medical equipment to help in a destroyed eye clinic, medical equipment and training to help struggling newborns, food, water filters in refugee camps, and many more. On top of this there is help for emergencies and natural disasters, such as flooding and earthquakes (Turkey especially).

We senior missionaries are all paying money to be on missions, which mostly pays for our housing, utilities, and cars. We pay for our own food and personal expenses. The overhead costs for the Church are minimal, and the Church picks up the tab for necessary things like travel and the two or three paid administrators over all of Central Europe.

Plus, these senior missionaries carefully track all the money and evauate the projects and the charities we work with so we can be sure the money is spent in the way intended.

So all the money goes to the people who need it.

Look around for humanitarian projects in your area. Donate to humanitarian causes, including Church humanitarian donations. We love being part of a cause that improves the lives of so many in need.

As Christ says in Matthew in the New Testament: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."