Mormon Helping Hands

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Volunteers wearing yellow Mormon Helping Hands shirts and vests help clear thousands of used sand bags from a Moorhead, Minnesota property on April 25, 2009. Mike Moore/Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA - 40909 - Faith-based volunteer groups pour into Moorhead, MN to help local residents.jpg
Volunteers wearing yellow Mormon Helping Hands shirts and vests help clear thousands of used sand bags from a Moorhead, Minnesota property on April 25, 2009. Mike Moore/Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Helping Hands (formerly known as MormonHelping Hands) is a community service volunteer program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [1]

Contents

The logos were used in 1992 in South Florida after Hurricane Andrew ravaged the city of Homestead and other parts of Miami-Dade County, Florida. [2] The church officially established the program in 1998 [3] in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile to identify service being done by members of the LDS Church. That same year it was implemented on a large scale in Brazil as part of a country-wide day of service organized by the church. It has since been used in many countries. [4]

The activities carried out by Helping Hands are diverse and include cleaning, maintenance, and repair projects for public spaces, collecting and distributing donations, [5] job market guidance, [6] health campaigns, and support for victims of natural disasters. [7]

Helping Hands both responds to disasters such as hurricanes [8] and gives aid aimed at improving conditions caused by long-standing problems such as deterioration of parks that lack proper upkeep. [9] In 2017, Mormon Helping Hands was asked to assist local communities in cleaning up from Hurricane Harvey and were featured on the news.

The program is open to everyone, regardless of religious affiliation. People can register through local congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or via the program's official website, where information about upcoming projects and specific needs is shared. [10]

See also

Notes

  1. "Helping Hands". www.churchofjesuschrist.org. Retrieved 2024-07-02.
  2. "Hurricane andrew: LDS volunteers join clean-up effort amid vast destruction", Church News , September 5, 1992, retrieved July 2, 2024
  3. "Mormon Helping Hands Completes First Decade of Service", Ensign , January 2009
  4. Zavoral, Gary (May 5, 2010), "10,000 to Give Helping Hands to Distressed Sacramento-area Parks on Saturday", Sacramento Press, archived from the original on October 22, 2011, retrieved March 1, 2012
  5. "Projeto 'Mãos que Ajudam' leva ajuda humanitária a comunidades ribeirinhas que sofrem com os efeitos da seca". G1 (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2023-11-20. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  6. "'Mãos que Ajudam' promove ação para a inclusão das pessoas com deficiência no mercado de trabalho". G1 (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2023-09-09. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  7. Press, Frank Mustac | Independent (2011-12-21). "Mormon Helping Hands from Clinton Township lightens the load of post-storm cleanup". nj. Retrieved 2024-07-02.
  8. Mustac, Frank (December 21, 2011), "Mormon Helping Hands from Clinton Township lightens the load of post-storm cleanup", The Hunterdon County Democrat
  9. "Mormon Helping Hands to deploy nearly one million volunteers Saturday to beautify state parks", Merced Sun-Star , May 6, 2010
  10. "Self-Reliance Services". www.churchofjesuschrist.org. Retrieved 2024-07-02.

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