MormonNewsroom.org features stories from its international Newsroom websites to share what leaders and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world are doing to better the communities in which they live.
Pacific: Helping Fiji Communities Get Back on Their Feet
John and Karen Vermeeren of Calgary, Canada, are serving a Mormon humanitarian mission in the Pacific on the island of Taveuni.
Elder and Sister Vermeeren have been working from sunup to sundown helping the residents of Taveuni and other villages on the island recover from Cyclone Winston. They have been delivering food, clothing, water, shelter and comfort to the victims of the February cyclone.
In this story on the Pacific Mormon Newsroom website, Sister Vermeeren took the pictures and tells the story of what they have experienced in their assignment as missionaries.
United Kingdom: Mormons Help Refugees Settle In
Latter-day Saints in the UK have participated in an unprecedented outreach to gather food and other essentials for refugees in a project called “Caring for Calais.” The effort has been taking place in the Staines area, a suburban town on the River Thames in England.
Their recent work has resulted in filling 1,600 boxes with food. This is part of a total of 3,400 boxes of food since their project for the refugees began late last year.
Read more about the project on the United Kingdom Mormon Newsroom website.
Louisiana, USA: Mormon Helping Hands Assist with Flooding Cleanup
Hundreds of Mormon Helping Hands volunteers in Louisiana and Mississippi provided more than six thousands hours of service helping to clean up after recent flooding.
An estimated 10,950 homes were damaged by the flooding following record-breaking rain in mid-March in the southeastern United States.
Go to the Mormon Newsroom website for additional information.
India: The Love of Service
Two small congregations of Mormons in Hyderabad, India, learned the joy of giving service to their fellowman while painting and cleaning the Holy Bell’s Children’s School.
The facility’s directors said the 200 students expressed their excitement to see their school clean and freshly painted.
Go to the India Mormon Newsroom website to read some of the children’s comments.
Ireland: Church Introduces Employment Resources to West Africa
Self-Reliance Services of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has created a jobs initiative to help prepare people in need from Cape Verde, a country off the coast of West Africa, for employment opportunities.
Latter-day Saints face employment challenges on Cape Verde, but with the help of Self-Reliance Services, people will be able to fine-tune job skills and be better prepared to accept meaningful jobs.
Go to the Ireland Mormon Newsroom website for additional insights.
Peru: Church Donates Medical Equipment to Hospital
Welfare Services of the Church has given medical equipment to the Goyeneche Hospital in the city of Arequipa in southern Peru. The reason for this equipment is to improve the medical services in the areas of pediatrics, neonatology and obstetrics and gynecology.
The equipment is projected to benefit more than 23,000 mothers and children.
Go to the Peru Mormon Newsroom website (Spanish) to read more about why the Church does this.
New York City, USA: Genealogy Enthusiasts Meet for Afro-American Conference
The 12th annual Harlem African American Genealogy Conference was held recently to further the progress on the Freedmen’s Bureau Project, an initiative to index more than 1 million Civil War-era records of about 4 million people.
The conference was held in the Church’s Harlem meetinghouse, where family history consultants and other genealogy experts were featured speakers and gave assistance in navigating FamilySearch.org. The website is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is a major resource to help people research their family’s history.
Read more about the conference on the Mormon Newsroom website.