“Caring: A Global Initiative to Improve the Well-Being of Women and Children,” Liahona, Aug. 2025.
Covenant Women
Caring: A Global Initiative to Improve the Well-Being of Women and Children
We bring the love and relief of Jesus Christ to all the world as we care for those in our own homes, neighborhoods, and communities.
The inspired work of the Relief Society has had roots deeply embedded in humanitarian work and caring for those in need since its divine beginning in 1842. In the 20th century, Relief Society sisters sent grain they had stored to help feed those affected by natural disaster and famine. They established hospitals, helped women to attend medical school, and trained women in nursing and midwifery, greatly improving maternal and newborn mortality rates. They also promoted education by establishing schools and literacy programs.
Today, nearly eight million Relief Society sisters worldwide remain committed to caring for those in need. Relief Society supports experiences for women to bring and receive the Savior’s relief—temporal and spiritual—to all of God’s children. As sisters give and receive the Savior’s relief, they become more like Him, feel His love, and desire a deeper, covenant relationship with Him.
The Church’s global initiative to improve the well-being of women and children is an experience—an opportunity to bring temporal and spiritual relief to all of God’s children. We do so with His Spirit, His delegated priesthood authority, and His power, which we receive by keeping our covenants with Him.
With this initiative we seek to make the greatest possible impact in blessing the lives of women and children through these four areas of focus:
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Child nutrition
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Maternal and newborn care
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Immunizations
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Education
Why are we focusing our energy, hearts, and resources on a global initiative to improve the well-being of women and children? Because we believe that global progress begins with women and children. President Johnson teaches: “When you bless a woman, you bless a family, a community, a nation. When you bless a child, you invest in the future.”
As part of the global initiative, the First Presidency approved a $55.8-million Church-led initiative to accelerate nutrition and health-care improvement in 12 high-need countries. In collaboration with eight key non-government organizations, the Church supported programs that benefitted the health and well-being of more than 14 million children and new and expectant mothers in 2024.
President Camille N. Johnson visits with a mother of three children at a food donation event in Costa Rica. “She was so grateful for a meal for her hungry children,” says President Johnson. “I told her I loved her and, more importantly, that God loved her.”
Part of an Important Cause
When I (President Johnson) traveled to Costa Rica last year, I had the opportunity to help with a food donation event. I was touched to meet many women and children who came to receive a healthy meal. I had the distinct impression that we were doing just what the Savior would have us do. I met Yumana and her three beautiful children. This sincere woman was selling ribbon roses she had crafted in order to provide for her family. She was so grateful for a meal for her hungry children. I told her I loved her and, more importantly, that God loved her. Yumana received temporal relief and spiritual relief as she felt and acknowledged the love of God.
We see this global initiative as part of the work of salvation and exaltation. As people receive temporal relief, we hope and expect they will feel the Lord’s love for them and desire to enter or deepen a covenant relationship with Him.
Efforts to improve the health and well-being of women and children fulfills the divine responsibility to care for those in need. Yet this initiative blesses people in other ways:
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It increases the intellectual and physical capacity of the rising generation, helping them to also reach their spiritual potential.
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It fosters outreach to our neighbors and friends, many of whom also want to learn how to help their own children.
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It provides a gospel-centered cause that promotes meaningful service and ministering opportunities for women, especially young adult women.
The present generation of young adults wants to be a part of an important cause, a cause that makes a real impact and difference in the world. We hope this global initiative will help our sisters see that they already belong to one of the greatest causes on earth: the Lord’s divine organization for women in His restored Church, the Relief Society.
We believe this global initiative will inspire our members and friends to serve in their communities. We hope they will see that:
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is prioritizing issues that impact women and children and dedicating resources to improve their health and well-being.
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The Church and its Relief Society are global leaders in addressing humanitarian issues.
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The Relief Society is led by and composed of women who are improving the lives of individuals, families, and communities.
This is just the beginning of something extraordinary that will bless the lives of so many who will give and receive the Savior’s relief today, and in the years to come, as this global initiative continues to progress.
A medical professional examines a child in the Philippines. Child nutrition is one of four areas of focus for the Church’s global initiative to improve the well-being of women and children.
Within Our Spheres of Influence
On a global scale, the worldwide Church represents each of us as members in bringing together organizations who are experts in addressing big issues in faraway places. Still, perhaps the best humanitarian outreach is done close to home as you reach across the fence or across the street. You are living your covenants and participating in our global cause when you act with Christlike compassion and lovingly care for those in your own families, neighborhoods, and communities.
You may not be able to repair a neighbor’s roof or travel to a different country to clean out peoples’ homes after a catastrophic hurricane, but could you read to a child, listen to a friend who is struggling, or donate a fast offering? Every effort is valuable and important in this work to care for those in need. Thank you for being a conduit through which others can receive the Savior’s relief by being His gentle hands, His nimble feet, His listening ears, His kind-speaking lips.
As the Church brings organizations together to collaborate for the health and well-being of women and children in various countries, Relief Society sisters bring people together to address challenges in their own communities. The women of Relief Society recognize needs, gather resources, and help address challenges. And we do so with the help of the Spirit, bringing the love and relief of Jesus Christ to all of God’s children.
Seeing the needs of immigrants in Milan, Italy, Relief Society sisters organized a service opportunity to provide them with clothing and household goods. Some sisters donated gently used items, while others organized and cleaned the donations. Each sister’s offering was important. The Relief Society sisters helped visitors feel the love of Jesus Christ as they came to the donation center. Monia, a local Relief Society sister, said, “From little things come great things. And we can bless the people inside and outside the Church. It’s the gospel in action.”
Speaking to the newly organized Relief Society, the Prophet Joseph Smith said to the sisters, “You are now placed in a situation in which you can act according to those sympathies which God has placed in your bosoms.”
While in Guadalajara, Mexico, Sister Yee learned about and saw so many incredible examples of sisters acting according to those sympathies as they sought to meet a local need.
One such sister was Sister Pulido, who saw a need at a local hospital to help families and individuals who came from far away and needed food and clothing while they waited for treatment. She gathered 120 Relief Society sisters, several missionaries, and others in the community to find donations of food, water, blankets, and clothing. About 1,500 people donated goods, and the sisters and others prepared lunches and food for nearly 1,200 people. The goods were given to those who were waiting their turn for treatment at the hospital.
This sister said she was doing this because she had compassion for these people. With tears in her eyes, she humbly explained that she had been one of those individuals waiting in the hospital as her husband came and went for cancer treatment. She said her greatest blessing and desire is to minister as the Savior would.
Bringing the Savior’s Relief
Sisters, we have been entrusted with the sacred work of bringing the Savior’s relief—temporal and spiritual—to all the world. And we can do so by tending to those within our own spheres of influence. What a gift and blessing this is. Participating in the global initiative to improve the well-being of women and children is one of many experiences which draw us closer to the Savior. Acting as He would, we feel His love; and our desire for, and commitment to, a covenant relationship with Him grows.
Thank you for helping us bring the love and relief of Jesus Christ to our sisters and brothers everywhere.
In trying to emulate Jesus Christ, the most important requirement for us as His disciples is to recognize immediate individual needs around us and respond with patience and love.
President Russell M. Nelson said to us in the 2024 Worldwide Relief Society Devotional, “I bless you to realize that your divine gifts as a daughter of God give you the power not only to change lives but to change the world!”
That is our extraordinary charge!
It is a glorious season to be covenant women and members of a society that brings the Savior’s relief—temporal and spiritual—to our sisters and brothers around the world. The ultimate goal in providing for relief and self-reliance is to prepare the way for our sisters and brothers to desire and receive the love and mercy available to those who make and keep covenants with God.
We express our testimony that Jesus Christ is relief and that the relief He offers is everlasting.