During recent years, LDS Humanitarian Services has focused on four major initiatives to help people in underdeveloped countries: clean water, neonatal resuscitation training, vision treatment and training, and distributing wheelchairs. The initiatives — made possible by donations from Church members — help people in numerous countries around the world "become more self-reliant in a significant and meaningful way," said Rich McKenna, director of Humanitarian Services.

Unlike emergency response, where the Church sends immediate aid in response to a crisis, the four major initiatives are designed to make a significant impact over an extended period of time.

Ron Taylor, communications manager for LDS Foundation, an organization that serves as the central coordinating agency to encourage and facilitate donations to the Church, said he is continually amazed that the contributions of Church members — beyond what they pay in tithing and fast offerings — are now helping people in the far corners of the world. "It is inspiring to me that LDS Humanitarian Services is reaching out to people in the remotest of areas," he said.

This week's Church News features four examples of how people have been helped in Mongolia.

Clean water

On the vast high desert of Mongolia, children — most vulnerable to water-borne disease from polluted sources — often travel long distances to fetch water. In many villages, young girls shoulder that responsibility, spending their days in the important task and never have an opportunity to attend school. These children, from the remote area of Mongolia's Selenge District, now fetch water from a well — dug by Church Humanitarian Services and opened in an official ceremony this June — on the outskirts of their village. Providing sanitary water sources close to this village allows these girls to attend school more often, because they spend less time carrying water and get sick less often, said Paul McFate of LDS Foundation, who traveled to Mongolia.

Vision

Javkhaa, of Darhan, Mongolia, is escorted by her mother Ouyuha. (Mongolians traditionally use only one name.) Javkhaa had been blind for 25 years when volunteer doctors identified her as a good candidate for eye surgery. The operation was performed by local doctors, trained by Dr. Roger Harrie of Salt Lake City as part of the Church's humanitarian initiatives. Through Church humanitarian services, volunteer doctors provide training for local surgeons in cataract and other eye surgery techniques. The training, along with donated equipment, paves the way for many who are blind to receive their sight. A large percentage of the blind population of the world could be healed by inexpensive surgery to remove cataracts, said Brother McFate.

Following the surgery to remove cataracts from one eye, then the other, Javkhaa's sight was restored — even though it will take some time for her to learn to interpret her new world of light. Javkhaa's younger sister, who had been her caregiver for many years, wore a beautiful white dress to the hospital the day doctor's removed Javkhaa's bandages. The younger sister wanted to look beautiful when Javkhaa saw her for the first time, said Brother McFate.

Wheelchairs

Ganzorig, from the Selenge Province of Mongolia, can now participate in community events with his friends — something that was impossible until he received a wheelchair through Church Humanitarian Services last year. Now, he said, he can go out and take care of his younger siblings. Raised in the Mongolian countryside, Ganzorig looked after sheep and cows for 18 years. Then he started feeling sick. He spent an entire winter in the hospital, fighting a debilitating disease. His legs got worse and worse, until he could no longer walk on them, he said. He moved to an apartment in Suhbaatar, a small town on the Russian boarder. Before receiving his wheelchair, he used to get around using his hands and mostly stayed in the house. A member of the Church, Ganzorig now attends a small branch in Darhan, enjoys friends and hopes to eventually find employment.

Neonatal resuscitation

After a painful pregnancy, Erdene Enkhtaivan delivered her first baby. Doctors had taken really good care of her and her baby, she told visitors from the Church. But she didn't know until after the birth how dangerous it had actually been for the new baby; he was born with breathing difficulties. Had it not been for the training of the nurses, her baby might not have survived. A year earlier, LDS Humanitarian Services conducted neonatal training in Ulaanbaatar and Darhan, Mongolia. The doctors who received training from Latter-day Saint American doctors, then trained other medical professionals in their community. Those nurses delivered and then resuscitated Erdene's baby. In the hospital, Erdene wrapped her baby and sang to him. "It was obvious she loves this child and that he is the joy in her life," said Scott Wilhite of LDS Foundation. "I fear to think what might have happened had the training not been passed down the year before."