Françoise's "Life-Giving Fish": Treating Anemia Around the World
Humanitarian Services and Care have been working together to improve nutrition and food security in southeastern Benin by distributing the Lucky Iron Fish to help eliminate anemia.
Change people's lives at home and around the world
October 2020
As part of its ongoing collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), Latter-day Saint Charities is helping fund the WFP’s global distribution of critical supplies during COVID-19. This donation helps feed schoolchildren in Somalia who cannot obtain a meal because of pandemic school closures. An additional $2 million donation also bolsters the WFP’s effort to mitigate supply chain disruptions and deliver necessary medical staff and supplies where they are most needed.
“This is why the World Food Programme is stepping up to fill in the gaps—to provide all the things that are needed out there in the field to help people stay alive and keep the economies going as well,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. “We’re very grateful because [the Church is] one of our largest nongovernmental partners. We work together in many countries. We’ve talked about many other countries and many of the opportunities of how we can end hunger around the world.”
“[The WFP has] a presence in places where we have no members of the Church, in places like Yemen, Somalia—places that are conflict-ridden,” added Sister Sharon Eubank, president of Latter-day Saint Charities. “The partnership is five or six years old, and it’s one of our most significant partners.” She and Bishop W. Christopher Waddell of the Presiding Bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently hosted Beasley on Temple Square.
The WFP is a United Nations agency that operates in more than 80 countries, feeding people caught in areas of conflict and natural disaster. It also works with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience.
Relieving Suffering in Somalia
The Somalian government closed its schools in April 2020 after the first cases of COVID-19 appeared in the country. Though this was a prudent decision, the closure cut off many schoolchildren from an important opportunity to obtain a meal during the day—a significant setback for a country wrestling with malnutrition. A lack of good food weakens the immune system and increases one’s susceptibility to diseases such as COVID-19.
A Latter-day Saint Charities’ donation is helping WFP Somalia use its e-Shop phone app to ensure that some 35,323 schoolchildren have five months of nutritious food.
Read more at Church Newsroom
Humanitarian Services and Care have been working together to improve nutrition and food security in southeastern Benin by distributing the Lucky Iron Fish to help eliminate anemia.
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