Mothers and children wait in line for food at the Ifo Refugee Camp in Garissa County, Kenya, on Dec. 8, 2022.
Leslie Nilsson, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Founded by The Hunger Project in 2011, World Hunger Day
is marked every May 28 to raise awareness about the more than 800
million people suffering from chronic hunger around the globe.
When
someone lacks the physical or financial capability to meet their
nutritional needs, it leads to malnutrition, wasting, stunted growth and
death.
Often,
the Church’s most effective way to bring relief to people is to partner
with local humanitarian and nonprofit organizations that have local
resources and the expertise to address all different types of hunger and
malnutrition.
Below are some of those examples of collaboration and response.
In Ghana, Naomi Osabutey learned to
make bread, and it’s now the primary source of her income. Patience
Nugba-Yiyiava was taught how to grow and sell vegetables to help her
family.
Naomi Osabutey
makes bread for her family and to sell in her village, after training
from The Hunger Project. Funding from The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints helped with these efforts in Ghana, Africa.
A couple from Ecuador laugh and stand in a workshop. The
emotional resilience materials are currently available in English and
many additional languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, French and
Russian.
|
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
As the world continues to battle the COVID-19
pandemic and its impacts, researchers are finding that simple
interventions can help build emotional resilience — the ability to adapt
to challenges and change — and increase positive emotions.
A recent study conducted across 87 countries
by researchers from Harvard, Stanford and other universities found that
using a simple method to help people think differently about their
situations improved their emotional response.
Developing healthy thinking patterns is one of many topics covered in “Finding Strength in the Lord: Emotional Resilience,”
a manual and course offered by Self-Reliance Services of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to help members and their friends
adapt to challenges with courage and faith centered in the Savior.
“There’s no shortage of emotional trials or struggles that we’re going
to have,” said Derek Hagey, Family Services program manager who helped
develop the Emotional Resilience manual. “The development of this
program really is to help those who are looking at the future and
saying, ‘I want to develop some skills to help me.’ …
“Let’s strengthen our emotional resilience now. Let’s build those skills that we need. Let’s develop that mindset of hope.”
Cover of the manual “Finding Strength in the Lord: Emotional Resilience.”
Credit: Screenshot from ChurchofJesusChrist.org
In addition to developing healthy thinking patterns, the
Emotional Resilience manual includes resources for managing stress and
anxiety, understanding sadness and depression, overcoming anger,
managing addictive behaviors and building healthy relationships.
The request to develop the manual came prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hagey said.
Designed for anyone and everyone, the manual and course are not meant
to be a replacement for therapy, he emphasized, but rather an
introductory resource for developing skills, building hope and
experiencing healthy relationships.
“The central part of all of
this is the Savior and turning to our Savior throughout the whole
course,” Hagey said. “Christ bore all the infirmities of this world —
not just some or not just the sins — but all infirmities, so that He can
know how to succor us and help us through our struggles. … With Him,
there’s always hope.”
Some Latter-day Saint congregations have
started organizing virtual and in-person group meetings, based on local
conditions and directions, to go through the Emotional Resilience manual
together with a facilitator.
Elizabeth Valencia of the Dayton
Ohio Stake is one of many who has participated in an Emotional
Resilience group. She described the course as introspective and said she
learned how to develop “a healthy response to life experiences rather
than be derailed by them.”
Valencia said the most impactful part
of the manual for her was Chapter 2: Healthy Thinking Patterns. As a
reminder of what she learned, she still has a picture on her computer
screen of the Savior talking to a woman at the well (John 4).
“In the picture, she’s looking at Him, and He’s looking back at her,” Valencia said. “I put [Doctrine and Covenants 6:36]
there because one of the things you’re talking about is recognizing
inaccurate thinking patterns … and to try and look to the Savior in
every thought.”
During the weekly meetings, Valencia said, “you
talk about dealing with life and how to find strength through the
teachings of Jesus Christ and support from other people.”
“You
don’t have to share if you don’t want to,” she added, “but you learn a
lot about a lot of things … from depression to exercise to taking care
of your body to communication with other people. It covers a wide, wide
variety of topics that can help us to be emotionally and spiritually
stronger than we were when we started.”
A family smiles
for a portrait in Ghana. The new emotional resilience materials are
designed for anyone and everyone to learn how to better adapt to
challenges and change.
Credit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Valencia said she would participate in the
manualized-study course again. “There is so much content there, and I
think at different times in your life, there are different things that
you would learn from the different modules.”
Valencia’s husband,
Dayton Ohio Stake President Ricardo Valencia, commented on the
importance of emotional resilience for members in his area and the
enduring impact of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s general conference talk “Like a Broken Vessel.”
“We’re so grateful that an Apostle would address [mental and emotional
health], and the fact that the Church has continued to see that as a
need and come out with a course like this to help address those needs — I
think it just makes a great point that the Lord is mindful of us and
that He’s putting forth the resources to bless His people,” President
Valencia said.
Sister
missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attend
the 100-year celebration of Christianity in Cambodia on Jan. 27, 2023.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Members and missionaries of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints were among thousands who helped mark 100
years of Christianity in Cambodia earlier this year.
“We have been
blessed by a government that allows us to practice our religion
freely,” Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission President Veasna Neang said in an
interview with local news organizations, reported the Church’s Cambodia Newsroom.
“We have missionaries who leave their homes and serve all over the
world. We have many American and Khmer missionaries who serve here.”
Cambodia Phnom
Penh Mission President Veasna Neang participates in an interview during
the 100-year celebration of Christianity in Cambodia on Jan. 27-28,
2023.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
They share a message of the gospel and of living prophets today, President Neang said.
More than 95% of Cambodia’s 16.8 million people are Buddhist, which is the state religion, according to the World Factbook. About 2% are Muslim and 0.3% are Christian.
There are more than 16,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cambodia in 28 congregations.
The
first Christian missions to Cambodia date back to 1555-56 by a friar of
the Dominican Order, but the effort wasn’t considered a success, according to news reports. It was in 1923 when
missionaries with the Christian and Missionary Alliance arrived and
were able to establish a mission and continue efforts to translate the
Bible.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints received legal
recognition on March 4, 1994. Many Cambodian refugees living in the
United States began joining the Church in the 1970s, according to ChurchofJesusChrist.org. A temple is being built in Phnom Penh and ground was broken in September 2021.
Cambodia’s
Prime Minister Hun Sen spoke at the celebration on the Koh Pich Theater
grounds with nearly 10,000 people. “This gathering is a demonstration
of the progress of Christianity in Cambodia under the shade of peace,”
Sen said at the Jan. 27 event.
Prime Minister
Hun Sen greets the audience of nearly 10,000 Christians at the 100-year
celebration of Christianity in Cambodia on Jan. 27, 2023.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Four Church leaders were invited to sit on the stand,
including Phnom Penh North Stake President Bunhouch Eng; Sophornn C.
Touch, counselor in the Phnom Penh South Stake presidency; Phnom Penh
Cambodia East District President Sokha P. Tay; and Samnang Sea,
president of the Cambodia Association of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
Elder Malachi Horn, a full-time missionary
serving in Cambodia, was also interviewed. When asked about the benefits
of Christianity to Cambodia, he said: “Christianity can help develop a
loving culture, and that looking forward, Christ can continue to bless
this country. He can bless us with knowledge and education and bring
hope and joy into our lives.”
Missionaries
from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gather for the
100-year celebration of Christianity in Cambodia on Jan. 27-28, 2023.
Children in front of the newly built classrooms at Magude
Primary School in Maputo, Mozambique. The Church and No Poor Among Us
helped the school upgrade to brick-and-mortar buildings in 2022.
|
Credit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Imagine trying to learn in a makeshift mud classroom
that floods every time it rains — or having no classroom at all, only a
spot under a tree.
Many students in Mozambique face overcrowding
and lack of infrastructure. More than half of girls drop out of school
by grade five. Among students who finish primary school, nearly
two-thirds leave the system without basic reading, writing and math
skills.
Recently The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the nonprofit organization No Poor Among Us
replaced makeshift classrooms in underprivileged schools with
brick-and-mortar buildings, helping 2,340 students have space to study
and overcome barriers to their education, reported the Church’s Africa Newsroom.
No Poor managing director Josh Phillips — who served a mission for the
Church in Mozambique — said one of the schools they assisted was Magude
Primary School. “The kids at the primary school were learning in a mud
school,” said Phillips. “Every time it rained the school would fall and
the school would have to rebuild. As a result, the students lost more
than half of their school days, every year.”
Children
learning in a dilapidated makeshift classroom at Magude Primary School
in Maputo, Mozambique. The Church and No Poor Among Us built new
classrooms for the school in 2022.
Credit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church was able to replace the makeshift buildings
with brick-and-mortar classrooms, and build bathrooms as well, reported
Newsroom.
At Picoco Primary School, 1,300 children were being
taught with just three classrooms. The school’s director, Gilberto
Albano Chiburee, said the school had been able to accommodate 200
students among those three classrooms, but the number of students kept
increasing.
Students then were divided into three sessions,
morning, afternoon and evening. When the number of students passed 500,
Chiburee and the faculty started planting trees.
“We used these
trees as makeshift classrooms because we did not have any other option.
We had sought the help of various companies, nonprofit organizations and
the government but to no avail,” Chiburee said.
Children
learning under a tree at Picoco Primary School in Maputo, Mozambique.
The Church and No Poor Among Us are working together to build new
classrooms for the school in 2022.
Credit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The first and second graders were given the classrooms, while third through seventh graders learned under trees.
“It broke my heart to have children arrive as early as 6 a.m. only to
sit on the hard and uncomfortable ground until noon. Some of the
children started experiencing back problems,” said Chiburee.
When
the Church and No Poor heard about the school, they arranged to
construct five classrooms. Newsroom reported the news was received with
great excitement, gratitude and tears from teachers, students and
families. Chiburee expressed how thankful he was that no student would
be sent home as a result of rain or wind.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of June this year. An additional 900 students will be accommodated.
The Church’s Africa South Area welfare manager, Phillip Moatlhodi, said
another project they tackled was Matole Gare Primary School. “The
conditions prior to the start of the project were not ideal,” said
Moatlhodi. “The parents had started to construct two classrooms to
improve the conditions of their children, however, because of the impact
of COVID-19 they were not able to complete the classrooms.”
The
Church funded the construction of two classrooms and private donors
funded the construction of three more. Then they gave five new
classrooms to a small, struggling school in the rural area of Mahubo.
About 900 additional students can now be accommodated thanks to this
effort, reported Newsroom.
Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles gives a copy of the Book of Mormon in Portuguese to Mozambique
President Filipe Nyusi, in Mozambique on Thursday, May 19, 2022.
|
Credit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
A meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, this week marked
the first time an Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints met with a head of state in that country.
Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi met Thursday, May 19.
Their meeting began with prayer at the invitation of Nyusi. Elder
Rasband prayed for the country, for the Lord’s guidance to come to all
leaders of the nation, and for the peace of Jesus Christ to be brought
to existing conflicts in the land, reported the Church’s Africa Newsroom.
Elder Rasband thanked the president for allowing religious freedom in
the country. “It’s no small thing to us that you and your government
have created such a wonderful spirit of freedom of religion,” he said.
The Church of Jesus Christ has grown from 50 members in Mozambique in 1991 to more than 15,000 members today, with a temple to be built in Beira.
The temple, which is in planning and approval stages, is a beacon of
hope to people in the country, who have dealt with challenges from
COVID-19, political unrest, tropical storms and unemployment, Africa Newsroom reported.
Nyusi said they await the temple. “It will add physical beauty, but
above all, it will be a place of peace and humility and coexistence
between cultures, between people and between generations,” he said.
Seated, Elder
Ronald A. Rasband, left, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, with his
wife, Sister Melanie Rasband, and Elder S. Mark Palmer of the Presidency
of the Seventy, with his wife, Sister Jacqui Palmer, meet with local
leaders and dignitaries in Maputo, Mozambique, on Wednesday, May 18,
2022.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Elder Rasband also spoke in the meeting about the Church’s
commitment to help alleviate suffering in Mozambique. The Church has
spent $17 million on humanitarian projects in the country over the past
10 years, including disaster relief, building classrooms and schools, and training farmers in rural areas.
Nyusi said those efforts give skills and empower the individual, while
adding to the fabric of society. In its humanitarian endeavors, the
Church can contribute “values of solidarity, values of peace, tolerance,
forgiveness, and values of work,” he said.
Also present at the meeting were Elder S. Mark Palmer of the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Edward Dube,
General Authority Seventy who is serving in the Africa South Area
presidency, Sister Melanie Rasband, Sister Jacqui Palmer and other local
Church representatives.
Samo Paulo Gonçalves, a counselor in the
Mozambique Maputo Mission presidency who works as a technical adviser
to Nyusi, said the meeting was a great honor for the Church and a
historic moment. “There are a lot of leaders in Mozambique, and the
president doesn’t meet all of them, but he decided to meet us,” he said.
His wife, Albertina Gonçalves, said: “We are going to work hard as
Church members to make sure that the commitments that Elder Rasband made
to the president will all take place as he promised.”
‘This is just the beginning’ for Mozambique
Elder Rasband and the other general authorities also met with other
dignitaries and opinion leaders while in Mozambique, and held a meeting
with nearly 3,000 Church members both in person and virtually.
Elder Palmer said Apostles are called to go out in the name of the Lord
and under the direction of the First Presidency to build up the Church
and preach the gospel as special witnesses of Jesus Christ.
“To
have Elder Rasband come to Mozambique in that capacity … is a great
blessing to this country. Not only for our members, but for the country
as a whole,” Elder Palmer said.
Elder Dube said the Spirit was
powerfully felt on several occasions during the visit: “It has been
confirmed to me over and over during this trip that we are led by
prophets, seers and revelators,” he said.
In social media posts
about the experience, Elder Rasband said he was told the gathering was
the largest gathering in the history of the Church in Mozambique, and he
told the members “this is just the beginning.”
“As we turn our
hearts to the Prince of Peace, the sun is always on the horizon. Despite
our very real challenges, we have infinite reasons to hope,” Elder
Rasband posted.
He also wrote about giving Nyusi a copy of the
Book of Mormon in his language of Portuguese. “I was privileged to share
this sacred book with him as another sign of hope of the opportunity
for good things to come in this country,” wrote Elder Rasband.
Instruction for leaders throughout Africa South
Before the meetings in Mozambique, Elder Rasband led an instruction
meeting with Elder Palmer and the Africa South Area presidency — Elder Christoffel Golden and his counselors, Elder Dube and Elder Ciro Schmeil — for leaders throughout the Church’s Africa South Area.
District presidents, stake presidents, mission presidents and temple
presidents from Angola to Zimbabwe were at the Sandton chapel in
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Elder Rasband has traveled to Africa
six times in the past few years, and was thrilled to meet in person with
members as COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease, reported Africa Newsroom.
“Technology is wonderful, but nothing can replace looking into
someone’s eyes,” Elder Rasband said following the meeting on Saturday,
May 14. “It just feels wonderful.”
Elder Duane D.
Bell, Area Seventy from South Africa, left, speaks with Elder Edward
Dube, General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the Africa South
Area presidency, in Johannesburg, South Africa, on May 14, 2022.
Credit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
COVID-19 was a theme in many of the challenges that were raised in the session.
“Leaders come to a meeting like this and they’re looking for hope. Just
meeting is hopeful, and being able to be with each other and ask these
questions — it’s hopeful,” said Elder Rasband.
“[W]hat is
wonderful is that we all serve the Prince of Peace, which is Jesus
Christ. He is the great Healer, and He’s going to help families and He’s
going to help people. And His underservants — the leaders of the Church
— are going to do that too.”
President Gabriel Chinomwe of the Blantyre Malawi District told Africa
Newsroom that many questions that leaders often struggled with were
addressed.
“At the same time, I noted that the challenges that
were shared by brethren from other units are common in our units,” he
said. “It helped me to see that this work is one. We all have common
challenges.”
Elder Dunstan G.B.T. Chadambuka, an Area Seventy
from Zimbabwe, said the experience was “exceptional,” and inspired of
the Lord. “We felt a new brotherhood, a new love for one another, and a
desire to go and do better and do more. This has really lifted the
brethren up.”
Elder Amândio A. Feijó, an Area Seventy from
Angola, said it was an enlightening session. “We’ve been taught things
that we already know, but it was so spiritual in a very simple way.”
President Lebohang F. Mosia of the Phuthaditjhaba South Africa District
said, “There were moments when I felt like the Lord was literally
speaking.”
When Elder Rasband expressed the love of President Russell M. Nelson for each of the leaders present, “it felt so real,” said President Mosia. “It felt like the Savior was saying he loves me.”
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share via Email
