The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donates $3.4M to support migrants in South America
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated $3.4 million to an international global health and humanitarian organization named Project HOPE.
According to the church, the donations were presented during meetings in Ecuador and Colombia last week and are intended to help migrant and vulnerable populations in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. The church publicly released information on the donation on Wednesday.
Part of the church’s $3.4 million donation will be dedicated to helping the nearly 20,000 Venezuelan migrants residing in Ecuador. According to the press release, the funds will be used to provide more than 18,000 sanitation and hygiene kits as well as prescribed medication and maternal health care to those in need.
In Venezuela, the funding will support the physical and mental health of mothers, caregivers and children. It will include training for healthcare personnel and resources to treat disease and malnutrition.
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The funding will also be used to help more than 53,000 Colombians and Venezuelans through facilities that offer electricity, hand washing stations, bathrooms and private consultation spaces, the press release said.
As of September 2023, there were 7.7 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants worldwide with more than 4.4 million struggling to access food, shelter, healthcare, education, and formal employment, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It is estimated that 2,000 people leave Venezuela every day.
The UNHCR says many Venezuelans have been forced to leave their home country since 2014 due to “rampant violence, inflation, gang warfare, soaring crime rates, as well as shortages of food, medicine and essential services.” It is recognized as the largest forced displacement crisis in Latin America’s history.
Project HOPE, which stands for Health Opportunities for People Everywhere, is a nonprofit committed to saving lives through supporting local health organizations and workers, according to its website.
The nonprofit — founded in 1958 — provides several services in 25 countries, such as training health workers, providing mental health resources, supporting women’s and children’s health, responding to emergencies, and addressing infectious diseases.
The church reports spending more than $1.3 billion in 2023 for humanitarian efforts across 191 countries and territories, donating to causes such as childhood hunger and wildfire relief in Maui.
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