A unique consortium of charities has improved the lives of more than 52 million women and children in a dozen high-need countries over the past two years, leaders said Friday.
Their efforts have saved the lives of many mothers and babies, they said.
CEOs, vice presidents and senior managing directors traveled to Utah this week to deliver second-year reports on the project’s successes and challenges at the headquarters of its sponsor, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The church responded with a major new round of funding to continue the Caring for Women and Children Initiative.
“Because of the impact achieved, the strong collaboration established and our confidence in this important work, I am pleased to announce a Year Three commitment of $65 million,” Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson said.
The new donation raised the church’s total commitment to $184.2 million.
Big picture writ small
The staggering number of women and children helped might overshadow the life-altering support provided in the life of one mother or child, said Reed Peterson, CEO of iDE, a charity training women to become small-scale farmers and local entrepreneurs.
“I love the big picture of the 52 million,” he said, “but what stands out to me is the individual women, listening to these entrepreneurs talk about how excited they are for the future because they have an income, and how proud they are.”
President Johnson said that is exactly the church’s overarching purpose, to follow Jesus Christ’s example of helping “the one.”
She told the Deseret News about a woman in Nepal who received chickens that both provide valuable protein for her children and crucial income from selling eggs. The cash is life-changing.
“Her children will go to school,” she said. “That changes generations.”
The consortium’s efforts have also helped cut the number of mothers dying in childbirth by 50% at a regional hospital in Zambia, said Winnie Mwebesa, senior managing director of Save the Children’s International Programs Division.
President Johnson choked up when she announced the church’s latest donation as she thought about a child or mother rescued in birth.
“I’m delighted by the work that’s happened to help the 52 million ‘ones’ who have been touched over the course of these last couple of years,” she said.
By the numbers
The consortium is working in two areas of the world:
- Africa — Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zambia.
- Asia — Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal and the Philippines.
Charity leaders reported that the during the first two years of the five-year project:
- 52 million children, pregnant women and mothers received essential vitamins.
- 5 million children and pregnant women were screened for malnutrition and trained in nutrition best practices.
- 2.6 million women met in mother-to-mother groups to share nutrition best practices.
- 375,000 expecting mothers received prenatal care.
- 357 newborns were resuscitated at birth.
- 231,000 families received the seeds and training necessary to grow home gardens with more nutrient-dense foods.
- 95,000 families learned how to incorporate better hygiene practices.
- 85,000 health workers were trained to support maternal and newborn care, child nutrition, breastfeeding and the administration of vitamins.
The Church of Jesus Christ announced the initiative in November 2023 with an initial donation of $44 million for the first year, which began in March of 2024.
The church added another $11.8 million during the first year, then funded the second year at $63.4 million.
The story of a “one”
After Ramatu, a woman in northern Ghana, received nutrition training, she learned how to start a business making nutrient-dense flour.
Painfully shy, Ramatu began selling the flour in a little stand on the side of the road, said Peterson, the iDE CEO.
Two years later, Peterson visited Ramatu and found her still running her business and teaching her young daughter how to run it.
“The thing that got me the most was hearing her stand up and talk about her confidence, talk about how much she’s been changed,” he said.
Ramatu previously didn’t have the confidence to speak in front of groups.
“Now she eats that for breakfast,” Peterson said. “There’s a self-dignity and confidence that resonates with me more than anything else.”
He learned stories like hers over and over during a recent 30-day visit to Africa to gauge the consortium’s progress. Each story represents one person out of 52 million, he said, but they also represent an immeasurable “generational impact” that multiplies the one.
“That one, decades later, you’re going to see that impact across her family, her friends that she shared with, her children,” he said. “That’s a massive impact.”
Faith is a driver
The church created the consortium model to leverage the resources of the different charities.
“We invited organizations with unique strengths and perspectives to come together around a common purpose and shared commitment to serving those in need,” said Blaine Maxfield, managing director of Welfare and Self-reliance Services for the Church of Jesus Christ.
The seven charities involved are CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Helen Keller International, The Hunger Project, iDE, Save the Children and Vitamin Angels.
President Johnson said she believes their efforts have been multiplied both by the way they have worked together to share their resources, contacts and expertise. She also believes they have received divine support.
“I believe that we have seen miracles over the course of these last several years, working together in this consortium effort, because this is the work of a loving Heavenly Father who is passionately interested in every one of his children,” she said.
“When you bless the lives of these women and children, you are pursuing his hope and his cause to bring to pass the immortality and happiness for all of his children.”
She asked Latter-day Saints and others who want to help to recognize the one in their circles.
“There are opportunities, of course, for us to do grand and global work in caring for women and children,” she said. “This consortium is an example of how the church is committed.
But, she added, “there are women who cannot read in your community, and there are children who are hungry in your community. If we’ll each look for the one, that is the way we’ll address these challenges.”
Corrections: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the consortium’s efforts helped reduce maternal mortality at a regional hospital in Uganda; the hospital is in Zambia. Additionally, the name spelling of the woman helped in Ghana has been corrected to “Ramatu.”