Church Donates $2 Million in Ongoing Refugee Aid

In its ongoing mission to give humanitarian aid during the global refugee crisis, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated a total of $2 million to two charitable organizations Monday.

Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, second counselor in the Presiding Bishopric of the Church, presented the donation to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and International Rescue Committee (IRC), two organizations that are helping refugees build new lives in communities across the U.S.

​“We are grateful for these ongoing relationships and for the opportunities they provide to assist in one of the fundamental principles of the gospel — caring for those that may feel like strangers among us,” said Bishop Waddell. “This includes those who have been driven from their homes and find themselves in new and unfamiliar circumstances.”

The $1.25 million contribution to the USCCB will help welcome and assist newly arrived refugees in 80 diocesan resettlement offices throughout the country. The $750,000 donation to the IRC will provide similar services for displaced refugee families in their initial months of resettlement in 29 cities across the nation.

“I am extremely grateful to Bishop Waddell and the LDS Church for the support of Migration & Refugee Services,” said Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, auxiliary bishop of Seattle and chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration. “Together, as people of faith, we know that refugees desperately need our help — and this generosity allows us to serve many more.”

​Read the rest of the story in Mormon Newsroom