New York City, N.Y. — The Humpty Dumpty Institute (HDI) is pleased to announce a partnership with the Deseret International Charities.  Deseret International Charities, through its worldwide disaster assistance program, is supplying school kits and other supplies to the nearly 20,000 children who are benefitting from HDI’s school feeding programs in the Khammouane province of Laos.  These school feeding programs are conducted in conjunction with HDI’s landmine clearance programs.  Through a $6M grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food for Education program now in its second phase, HDI works with International Relief and Development and the Mines Advisory Group to clear landmine contaminated areas around schools, allowing children to resume their education and receive mid-morning snacks.  The project has led to a 16 percent increase in school enrollment and the clearance of 1.5 million square-meters of school and agricultural land once contaminated by unexploded ordnance.  The humanitarian shipment will reach the children of Laos in March, 2009.

Cooperation between HDI and Deseret International Charities is the result of both organizations’ commitment to humanitarian assistance and the welfare of children.  Future cooperation is planned for a school feeding program in Pakistan and assistance to the victims of trafficking in Sri Lanka.

HDI is a New York-based Institute that forges innovative public-private partnerships to find creative solutions to difficult humanitarian problems around the world. Currently, HDI's mandate is, to remove landmines and UXO around the world, to help alleviate domestic and international hunger, and to improve U.S.-U.N. relations.