SALT LAKE CITY — Latter-day Saint Charities helped millions of people through more than 3,000 humanitarian aid projects with 2,000 partners in 142 countries last year, according to its 2019 Annual Report.
The report reflected increases from 2018, when the charity completed 2,885 projects in 141 countries.
Monday’s report did not say how much money was distributed during 2019, but it did say that the charity has now provided more than $2.3 billion worth of assistance since it was founded in 1985 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 2018, the charity noted it had provided $2.2 billion in assistance since 1985.
Latter-day Saint Charities
The church conducts myriad other humanitarian and welfare projects, including its fast-offering program. Together with Latter-day Saint Charities, the total humanitarian and welfare spending of the church approaches $1 billion per year, according to the Presiding Bishopric.
Funding for Latter-day Saint Charities comes from donations provided online or to local church leaders around the world by church members and others, according to the 2019 report.
In fact, the church sent an email to church members on Monday afternoon, thanking them for their contributions to relieve human suffering and providing a link to the 2019 report.
Latter-day Saint Charities provided emergency relief in 65 countries and territories, the report said. For example, it provided food and shelter after back-to-back disasters in eastern Africa.
First, Cyclone Idai’s 175-mile winds killed 1,300 people and affected more than 3 million due to floods that destroyed crops in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
Then, a month later, the strongest storm to make landfall in Mozambique in recorded history, Intense Tropical Cyclone Kenneth, with winds up to 215 mph, killed 52 people and displaced 30,000 people.
Latter-day Saint Charities provided food and shelter to victims with the help of its partners.
Other projects included helping Syrians who fled the country during its ongoing civil war to rebuild their homes after returning to their country.
The charity’s report said it continues to repair schools so students will have a dry place to study during the rainy season.
The report details other projects. For example, the charity supported 387 refugee response projects in 48 countries during 2019.
The Deseret News has visited projects done by Latter-day Saint Charities and other church humanitarian and welfare organizations on six continents over the past three years, publishing in-depth looks at, among others:
- A water project in India.
- Refugee resettlement courses in Rome.
- Support for asylum-seekers on the U.S. border with Mexico.
- A vision project in South America.
- A program to combat diabetes in Oceania.
- A response to violence in New Zealand.
The email to members on Monday also noted that Latter-day Charities has an updated website, LatterDaySaintCharities.org and a new Instagram account, @LatterDaySaintCharities.