Transcript

Hi, I'm Leslie Goldman with the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. And I'm Sharon Eubank, the director of LDS Charities. We're here at an integrated early-learning center in northern Uganda, near the border of South Sudan. We're seeing what kids do best: they're playing, they're laughing, they're having fun. Sharon, what do you think? Well, this is Bidi Bidi camp, which is the second-largest refugee settlement in the world. And it's only existed since last August. So this has been very quickly put together for large amounts of people. So let me just ask you, why did you bring LDS Charities because of our partnership here? What was it about here that you wanted us to see now? We have such a strong and growing partnership, and it's been growing over many years. And ultimately, we both arrived at the fact that immunizations and education for refugees and displaced persons are some of the most impactful changes that we can make in the lives of children and families. And the partnership that we're building, I just think, has huge opportunities to really change the circumstances for so many families, both in Uganda and around the world. We made a real strategic decision a couple of years ago that there are a lot of people who will focus on emergency needs in hot-spot places that are in the news. And what we wanted to do was use some of our funding in places that are either forgotten or in interventions that aren't always funded because people say, you know, the hierarchy of food and shelter is very important, but psychosocial care and early childhood education is almost just as critical. And yet it's often not funded. And so we wanted to provide some resource for that. Exactly, and we are so grateful for that. Education--and particularly education for displaced persons--is funded at such a low level that the value that you're providing to families is enormous. There are both short-term benefits and long-term benefits. In the short term, kids that have come through conflict, famine, such difficult circumstances need a safe place. They need psychological rest. They need a place to just grow and learn. And in the long term, that makes them stronger and healthier, and they build healthier families themselves in the future. I was really impressed with the parents that we saw out beyond this gate because they don't have the ability to pay for the education, but they're here. They fill up the water tanks. They sweep the yard. They come to the parenting meeting. And they integrate some of the things that they've learned about how to be good parents and how to help their kids have a good experience, as good as they can, in the situation they're in. We really appreciate UNICEF because there's only a handful of partners that we have worked with this long that we have this kind of commitment and engagement to. So you are a terrific partner. Phenomenal. We look at your values of self-reliance and sustainability and service, and partnered with UNICEF's reach and technical expertise, we've got something really powerful here. Thank you. Thank you. Aww.

UNICEF and LDS Charities in Uganda

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Leslie Goldman and Sharon Eubank talk about a joint project between the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and LDS Charities in Uganda
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