Hi, it's Kristen here with LDS Charities. And today we're here with Jonathan Duffy, who is the president of ADRA International. So first of all, why don't you tell us a little bit about ADRA for those who aren't familiar with your organization? Sure. Well, ADRA is the Adventist Development and Relief Agency. It's a faith-based agency of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It has 141 country offices around the globe and brings aid to around 20 million people a year. And as our name suggests, we do development, long-term sustainable change as well as relief, which is disaster work. You know, looking more into your organization in preparing for this, I was surprised by how many similarities we have, not only in our religion but also in our humanitarian arm of what we do and what we believe in and the projects we work on. So my question for you, because I'd love to hear your perspective on what it's like to be a religious organization in the humanitarian arena. You know, I think that the role of faith-based organizations is changing quite dramatically in the last few years. There's been a huge recognition that 85 percent of the world's population are affiliated with some form of religion. And agencies like the United Nations and major countries and the European Union are all recognizing that if they want to effect change at a community level, they have to work through faith-based leaders. And so really, we are coming into our own at last as faith communities, as faith organizations, to say, you know, we must be partnered with. We have a voice in community, and in fact, we are the biggest influences in community. Yeah, and I, and I--you know, watching all of us work together so well too, with all kinds of different beliefs and different denominations and all of those things, it's been really neat to know we can come together. And it doesn't matter, you know, because we all are just trying to enact change, right? Yeah, exactly. You know, and we're not, we're not out there to sort of, you know, on a theological quest. Yeah. We're out there because we all have a fundamental belief that every person is a creation of God; every person has a right to achieve the life that God desires for them. I mean, that drives us to working together. And you know, I love working with LDS Charities, you know, because we do have such a faith connection. And it's my favorite group to work with. Well, that's nice of you to say. And we've got to work on some really amazing things this year. And you were just telling me you were recently in Bangladesh. So tell me a little bit about those projects. Sure. Well, in partnership with LDS Charities--and it's good for people to know that when you support us, we also match. And then we take those matches and then we leverage it for more money. So when people are donating to LDS Charities, their money gets multiplied two, sometimes four, sometimes up to sevenfold. Wow. And yet I was in Bangladesh, and we were in a partnership there. And the week I was there, we were feeding 100,000 people. Wow. And we're also providing shelter for 12,000 families, which is around 60,000 people. And just as a small illustration of this, you know, when people came in to the communities there with the Rohingya people, they came in in gunships. They blasted away with rockets. They fired indiscriminately. They dragged women off. They killed children. And people saw this and ran. And I was talking to one family, and they had a small shop. They lived in a modest but a very comfortable house. There was a man and his wife and four children, six of them. The house had two bathrooms. And now here they are; they're living in a shelter, which is really bamboo and strong plastic sheeting to keep the weather off them. They're sleeping on the floor apart from a mat, and they share two toilets with 450 people because that's the ratio. So from two toilets in their own family. And often we forget the fact that these are people. We sometimes think because they're living in the developing world, that they're so different from us. But actually they're very similar. And the trauma that they experience, if we could put ourselves in those same shoes, we would really recognize what they're going through. Yeah. And it's so neat to hear you tell these kind of stories because, you know, you guys are the boots on the ground. And that's why the partnership works so well, right? We help with some of the funding, and you guys are there doing the work, and you get to come back and tell us kind of what happened and how we were able to enact some of that change. So that's really neat. And I know that another one of our big projects we did this year was the winterization. Yes. So tell me a little bit about that project as well. I mean, again, you know, we've been working a lot with internally displaced people within Syria and people who have fled over the border into Iraq. And you know, again, when people flee, we've got to recognize they are fleeing violence and they don't have time to take anything with them. And you know, I'm looking outside today, and it's around about 32 as we talk. Yeah. Well, the temperature drops below that as well in these countries. Yeah. We think of the deserts as being hot, but they're really cold. And in the middle of winter, imagine having no warm clothing, and then the vulnerability to diseases and other things that comes because their immune system is depleted. So it's not just about clothing. It's also about protecting their health and well-being. And hope, too, right? Oh, exactly. Letting them know that there's people out there that are wanting to help with that. And I think that is actually why I love partnering with LDS Charities so much, because really, at the center of what we do, what we are is, we're creating hope. Yeah. And hope is so important in these circumstances. So to be able to offer--my coin phrase is to be able to "offer healing and hope." And we recognize that the source of healing and hope all comes from the same source. I love that. We use those words a lot, too. Well, I think that in the cases of emergency, people have a tendency to lose hope. Everything is taken away from them, and what are they left with? And I have a belief that as a person of faith, as an organization of faith, and as our partnership is faith-based, that we actually have hope and we have a source of hope. And when we want to reach out to people, we need to recognize it's not just about restoring food or shelter. It's about restoring hope and giving them a sense that they are still a spiritual being, that they are a creation of God. Yeah. I love that so much, so thank you for sharing with me. And Jonathan, thank you so much for being here with us today. We love our partnership, and it's so nice to hear a little bit about some of the things we've been able to work on together. And if you guys have any questions about LDS Charities or ADRA International, feel free to like our Facebook page and follow the link in the post.