Latter-day Saints Send Aid to Middle East

The Church responded to an appeal by the United Nations for humanitarian aid to help civilians affected by the conflict between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and Israel.

U.N. officials asked for supplies to provide three months of assistance to about 800,000 people who have been displaced, wounded, or otherwise affected by the fighting.

The Church donated medical supplies, powdered milk, baby formula, hand soap, and hygiene kits, which were flown to the affected region by Islamic Relief Worldwide. The planeload of supplies left Salt Lake City on Tuesday, August 1, 2006, and arrived in Lebanon a few days later. Representatives of Islamic Relief Worldwide and the Hariri Foundation, a Lebanese development and education organization, coordinated the distribution.

The Church has also met a request for financial aid to the Magen David Admon, the Israeli affiliate of the International Red Cross. The donation was to be used in Haifa to respond to increased demand on Magen David Admon’s blood services program, to help with ambulance response, and to support individual family needs.

President Gordon B. Hinckley has emphasized that the Church’s humanitarian assistance is provided to those in need wherever they may be without regard to religious affiliation, race, ethnicity, or political persuasion.

“We have done a great deal and have blessed the lives of many people who are not of our faith but who also are children of our Father,” President Hinckley has said. “We will continue to do so for as long as we have the means” (“Thanks to the Lord for His Blessings,” Liahona, July 1999, 105; Ensign, May 1999, 88).