Two organizations who have formed a close bond are making
a significant difference. Working together,
they give goats and bees to those most in need in Jordan.
[speaking in Arabic]
Our collaboration with LDS churches is very important for us
because they are the ones keeping the projects and helping
the poor people.
Seventy percent of the assistance through this project went to mothers who
are really rather desperate in terms of taking care of their families.
The best example was a lady that was named Hajar.
She was a single mother living in
a small cinderblock shed with six children.
She received two goats, and then two years later,
the flock had increased to six goats.
The milk and yogurt and cheese she was able to produce gave her enough income
that she could move into the house that was propping up the shed.
So she was able to pay rent and send her children to school
and basically take care of her family.
Goats are good at not only making milk,
but making other goats. The type of goat that our partner selected was known
for producing twins. The milk production was actually double,
so over time their flocks increased.
They went from refugee status to being able to take care of themselves.
The best point of this project is that they really know how to take care of
goats and make them productive.
All they need is the basic resource to get started.
There are 135 families that have received milk goats.
We were able to find through our partner Al Jahut that
the beehives could be a very good project for refugees to earn money with,
but they needed training. We found out that Ministry of
Agriculture Extension Center, which was in a very destitute area of Jordan,
where a lot of refugees are and very poor Jordanians,
that they would give them the classes for free.
One of the examples was a young man from Aleppo, Syria.
He came to Jordan as a refugee with his family.
He’d done a good job of taking care of the bees and selling the honey.
And two years later, he had four beehives,
but also is able to move his family into a house
and send his children to school.
This young man volunteered to train other new beekeepers
on how to take care of bees.
That’s the kind of thing we see through
Latter-day Saint Charities projects is that it strengthens the partners and
the community, as well as the individual beneficiaries.
They are very, very happy.
And when you are seeing they are smiling, you are very happy.
You see the light of Christ in these people's eyes.
They are uplifted by the same force that motivates all men to do good