- The Church of Jesus Christ's Giving Machines will expand to 21 countries.
- The church is partnering with 12 global nonprofits to provide essential goods and services.
- Machines offer 3,500 items benefiting people in 126 cities through health care, education and basic needs.
SALT LAKE CITY — From a young girl in Nepal to a family in Nicaragua and a single mother in Idaho, representatives from the Church of Jesus Christ and nonprofit leaders say the Giving Machines have impacted people all around the world.
"These cards in the machine might just look like cards, but they're giving back girls' dignity and health and opportunity," said Tiffany Larson, CEO of Days for Girls International.
Days for Girls International is just one of 12 global nonprofits partnering with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in this year's Light the World initiative.
Larson shared a story in a press conference Wednesday about a girl in Nepal whose community she lives in has a cultural practice of isolating girls from society when they are menstruating, forcing her and many other girls to fall behind in school.
With donations from the Giving Machines, girls in communities just like hers have received menstrual hygiene kits that educate the girls on their bodies, keep them in society and help them stay in school.
"The Giving Machines have really accelerated our work," she said. "We've been able to pilot new programs to reach new mothers in Kenya and to reach refugees in Uganda, schoolgirls in Nepal, Ecuador and Cambodia. It really just has accelerated an already proven model to help us to reach more people."
Days for Girls first partnered with Light the World last year, resulting in help provided to 28,000 people.
"Working with women and girls is a high-impact way to create change. When you reach a girl, you reach not only her, you reach her family and her whole community," Larson said. "There's just a lot of ripple effects."
This year, Light the World Giving Machines will be available in nine new countries and 41 additional cities, totaling 126 cities across 21 countries. New international locations include Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Italy, Spain and Thailand.
Twelve global nonprofits — American Red Cross, Care USA, Church World Service, Days for Girls International, Lifting Hands International, Mentors International, Right to Play, Special Olympics, Splash, UNHCR, UNICER and Water for Good — and almost 600 local nonprofit organizations will be offering about 3,500 items through the machines this Christmas season.
"Jesus Christ is the light of the world. When we focus our Christmas activities on him, and give gifts of love and service as he did, we fill the world with more light," Elder Matthew S. Holland, a general authority seventy, said.
In 2024, more than 850,000 people donated to a Giving Machine. Donations to the Giving Machines resulted in more than 2 million meals to the hungry, 500,000 vaccinations for children and 125,000 emergency food boxes given to refugees. Donations also provided school supplies, essential clothing, hygiene kits and groceries. More than 100,000 families also received chickens, goats and beehives for food and business opportunities.
"From shoes and clothing to nutritious meals, crops, livestock and access to shelter, health care and education, donations made through the Giving Machine initiative are transformative," Elder Holland said.
President Emily Belle Freeman, general Young Women president, shared how she visits a Giving Machine with her children every year to make donations — each year always includes selecting to donate a chicken, she said. On the drive home, her family would always imagine what the person receiving their donations is like and how it will help them.
"Every item purchased from these machines is delivered to a person in need, whether down the street or across the world," President Freeman said. "What begins as a three- to five-minute experience in front of one of these machines turns into a lifetime of change for a family or even for just one young woman."
Sister Kristin M. Yee, second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, announced that digital kiosks will also be available in some cities for purchasing donations. She said the machines are a crucial way the church's Relief Society brings "the savior's relief to those in need."
Many of the goods and services in the machines provide "foundation relief to women and children" through nutrition, immunization, self-reliance and education.
"When we come together to bless others as the Savior would in these efforts, we will bless and do much more than we would on our own," Sister Yee said. "Together let us light the world this season and bring the Savior's love, light and relief to those around us."
Giving Machines in some cities are already in operation, while others will be available later this month.
"If the retail world can celebrate (Christmas) now, then we can as well," said Elder W. Mark Bassett, a general authority seventy.
The service initiative benefits individuals of all kinds, he said, giving them dignity, health, happiness and opportunity.
"What an opportunity that we each have to be givers and to bless the receivers," Elder Bassett said. "(Christ) has asked us, commanded us, pled with us to love one other. This is just one way that we can love our neighbors."
In Utah, Giving Machines can be located in Ogden, Logan, St. George, Salt Lake City, Orem and Provo. Locations of the donation vending machines can be found on the church's website.
