SYDNEY, Australia — A check for $A100,000 ($US55,000) will be presented to Bob Mansfield, chairman of the Farmhand Foundation, by Elder Kenneth Johnson, president of the Australia/New Zealand Area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The funds are intended to help alleviate the desperate plight of farmers during Australia's current drought and will be presented at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, 28 March, in the offices of Investec Australia, Level 16, 167 Macquarie Street, Sydney.
The Church's Kooba Station in Griffith, NSW, is the source of the funds. The farm is one of a network of Church-owned properties worldwide from which humanitarian aid donations can come. There are Church-owned farms in 39 states of the USA and in Canada, New Zealand, England, Argentina, Mexico and Australia.
"In spite of some recent rains along the east coast, the national drought is still particularly severe and funds are still needed to alleviate the difficulties of farmers throughout the country," said Elder Johnson.
"We like to think that this gift represents one farmer helping another in a time of need. Because we are experiencing the same drought conditions at Kooba Station as other farmers, we well understand their plight."
Since its purchase by the Church a few years ago, Kooba Station has contributed to many projects as part of the Church's worldwide humanitarian program. From 1985 to 2002, the Church provided approximately $A 800 million in humanitarian and charitable aid internationally.
Spread along the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan Rivers are several properties that comprise 46,000 hectares of prime Australian farmland. While officially called AgReserves Australia Limited, they are better known by the name of the largest property, "Kooba Station."
The farm keeps livestock
and grows wheat, barley, canola, faba beans, sorghum, sunflowers,
maize, sweet corn, tomatoes, soybeans and rice.