I agree that the Caribbean area is a shambles and it has been for a long, long time. The hurricanes have just made it worse. Yes, it is necessary to give emergency aide, but that is just a temporary band-aid approach. You need to do things that make long term changes in peoples lives and hearts. Around the world, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provide immunizations, wheelchairs, eyeglasses, educational loans, loans and training for small home businesses, dig wells and build houses, demonstrate how to grow crops, give sanitation and nutrition education, health and disease training, provide elementary and secondary schools in Mexico and the Pacific Islands and assistance for higher education, give self-reliance training (managing finances, preserving food, job training), maternal and newborn care, refugee help, job training, provide employment centers which not only help to find jobs but help in learning how to write resumes and interview, communication skills, education on family relationships and problem solving, teach English, family counseling, and more.
This is all done by volunteers. When you retire, many members often volunteer to share their skills and talents with people around the world. They pay their own way and help all the people in an area in the world, not just members of The Church. I've known builders, doctors, nurses, teachers, farmers, businessmen, and people from many other fields, who go out and spend one to two years on a Welfare mission helping people. They work within the culture and enlist and train local people to do, and continue the work, if possible.
All this humanitarian work helps get people back on their feet, but as you know, they won't stay there if their lives don't change. This is why we also have proselyting missionaries who teach people the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As long as there is murder, stealing and corruption, as long as husbands get drunk and beat their families, as long as food money is spent on drugs, as long as people sink in despair and cower in fear, things will not change. On the other hand, when people know that they are a child of God and therefore have great potential, when parents love each other and nurture their families, when people are provided with education and the opportunity to improve their lives, when people treat all those around them fairly and kindly, the world will improve.
Though we can't suddenly make the whole world change, we can change the world for some of its people. We believe that it is the responsibility of those who have to help raise up those who haven't. This is what Jesus Christ wants us to do. That is what anyone with a kind heart would do. That is what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do.
This has made me want to look for ways I can be a good samaritan today. Thank you for sharing "what Mormons do" - I love it! :)
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