Welfare Specialists

LDS Charities operates 7 "signature programs",  www.ldscharities.org.  They include Clean Water, Wheelchairs, Benson Food Initiatives, Emergency Response, Maternal and Newborn Care, Immunization, and Vision Care.  In our area, we sometimes call upon welfare specialists from the USA to help us develop projects or provide training on these signature programs for communities and local in-country humanitarian couples.

Church couples who have an expertise in a particular area have been called and set apart as welfare specialists.  Most of these couples are retired, but some may still work part time.  Depending upon their expertise they are assigned an area to which they help in carrying out the signature programs.  The following is a description of what some of the specialists do.

Maternal and newborn care specialists give "train-the-trainer" instruction to medical personnel and birth attendants.  They provide lifesaving training and equipment to help medical people resuscitate babies born with breathing difficulties, support the care of newborns, and improve maternal survival.

Vision care specialists provide training, equipment and supplies to help local eye care professionals and develop programs to improve eyesight.

Wheelchair specialists help assess individual needs, select and fit people to appropriate wheelchairs, and train individual wheelchair users, their families and caregivers.

Clean water specialists help provide communities with clean water sources, as well as improve sanitation facilities and teach proper hygiene techniques.

Recently we had Elder Jim and Sister Karen Greding come to the Pacific Area.  While here they visited Samoa and Tonga to help develop clean water projects.  The water needs are as different for each country as are the ways they get water.  Elder and Sister Greding went out with the humanitarian missionary couples and staff and visited many potential water projects.  Then they write reports which helps our area to prioritize the water projects in different countries.  We are thankful to have specialists that we can call on to help our couples with their projects.

The Gredings have traveled to many places in the world, but most of these countries are not "vacation destinations".  Remember most countries do not have the water systems that we enjoy in the more developed world.  Getting to these water projects sometimes require hours of travel and many different modes of transportation and can be a little bit of a challenge to visit. 

"I am deeply grateful that as a church we continue to extend humanitarian aid where there is a great need.  We have done much in this regard and have blessed the lives of thousands upon thousands of our Father's children who are not of our faith as well as those who are.  We intend to continue to help wherever such is needed."  Thomas S Monson,  "Until We Meet Again",  April General Conference 2009