Latter-Day Saint Charities
Partner since 2013
Latter-day Saint Charities is the humanitarian arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that provides opportunities for service. Latter-day Saint Charities sponsors relief and development projects in 189 countries and gives assistance without regard to race, religious affiliation or nationality.
Latter-day Saint Charities and UNICEF USA have been in partnership since 2013, supporting UNICEF's efforts in providing immunizations and emergency response services for children and families and education and development programs for refugees. The partnership strives to reach the most vulnerable children and families and ensure they are able to survive and thrive.
Responding to COVID-19 and other emergencies
In February 2021, Latter-day Saint Charities committed $20 million to support UNICEF’s global work with the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and COVAX, leading procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to 144 primarily low- and middle-income countries. This commitment is in addition to Latter-day Saint Charities’ $3 million contribution in 2020, which helped fund UNICEF’s immediate pandemic response providing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services to areas with limited access.
With this support, UNICEF is able to scale up efforts to strengthen countries' cold chains and supply chains, train health workers, address misinformation about vaccines and build vaccine confidence.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore recognized the impact of Latter-day Saint Charities' support in a 2021 video address: "Thanks to the generous support of Latter-day Saint Charities for UNICEF's global COVID-19 response, children and families will get the critical medical and hygiene supplies they need, while their communities will benefit from improved infection prevention and control," Fore said. "We appreciate and thank our faith-based partners like Latter-day Saint Charities for their continued commitment to UNICEF’s work to support every child.”
Latter-day Saint Charities also supports UNICEF's humanitarian action for children in the wake of natural disasters, civil unrest, food insecurity and protracted crises. UNICEF has received emergency funding from Latter-day Saint Charities to provide critical programs in education, health, nutrition and WASH in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Jordan, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen.
Funding from Latter-day Saint Charities also supported UNICEF's emergency response in The Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian and UNICEF USA's domestic response in Houston, Tex., after Hurricane Harvey.
Supporting long-term immunization and education programs for children
Since 2014, Latter-day Saint Charities has supported UNICEF and partner efforts as part of the Global Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) Elimination Initiative to provide vaccines to women of reproductive age, health education and birth attendants training. By combining funding and expertise, the Latter-day Saint Charities and UNICEF partnership has also worked to tackle polio and measles, help countries develop routine immunization services and prevent and suppress disease outbreaks in Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar and Myanmar.
In 2018, Latter-day Saint Charities provided the seed funding for Learning for Life, a multi-country program designed to meet Early Childhood Development (ECD) and education needs of refugee children. Quality ECD services provide children with nutrition, stimulation and protection for optimal brain development; a sense of stability and normalcy; and safe spaces to learn and play. Long-term, ECD programs also help equip children and youth with the skills and life opportunities they need to break cycles of poverty and violence.
Since its inception, Learning for Life has scaled to reach refugee children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda with the following impact:
some 2,000 ECD staffers received training on child-centered learning and inclusive education
40,000 parents were informed on child development and caregiving best practices
over 6,000 out-of-school children have been reached with alternative learning programs, catch-up classes that provide a pathway for returning to formal education
more than 100,000 children now have access to quality ECD programs and education