How efforts by the Church are helping babies and families in Latin America (2024)

Donations, service projects and humanitarian efforts from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have blessed those in need in several countries in Latin America.

From new incubators for babies, to neonatal and maternal training and on to family gardens, these efforts particularly helped women and children.

Read about some of the recent efforts below.

Food bank donation and blankets in Ecuador

The Church made a donation to the Diakonía Food Bank on March 7 that will help feed more than 40,000 people in need in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The food bank is connected to the Archdiocese of Guayaquil.

Elder Enrique R. Mayorga, Area Seventy in the Church’s South America Northwest Area, said because of the service of missionaries and Church members, a close relationship of friendship began with the archbishop.

“Upon learning of the possibility of contributing as a Church with this type of project, we did it, and we look to the future. We are sure that this action will help bless many children and vulnerable people,” Elder Mayorga said.

For several months in 2023, members of the Quito Ecuador Stake Relief Society knitted 400 blankets to give to shelters and hospitals in the city.

The blankets were then delivered in December 2023, along with a special card sharing a message of love and encouragement. The Relief Society sisters also visited with hospital patients and sang to them during the deliveries.

Incubators and an echocardiograph in El Salvador

The Church donated five stationary incubators, three transport incubators and three thermal cribs to the newborn care team at the National Hospital of Cojutepeque in El Salvador on March 21.

The equipment will help approximately 50 babies a month and around 600 babies a year who need neonatal intensive care, explained a report from the Church’s El Salvador Newsroom.

San Vicente El Salvador Stake President Carlos A. Ayala Durán shared that Jesus Christ performed miracles as he healed and cured many people. “Like the Savior, with this new equipment the little ones will be blessed with better attention and care, and without a doubt, they will be miracles in the lives of many newborns.”

Earlier in March, the Church donated an echocardiograph to the cardiology department of the Rosales National Hospital. With the new equipment, specialists and doctors will be able to see patients’ hearts in three dimensions and give a more detailed diagnosis.

“As members of the Church, we try to emulate the model and example of Christ — compassion and love of neighbor — and this donation is a blessing for us to be able to serve and a blessing for the life-saving treatment of the children of God,” said Omar López, the Church’s national director of communications in El Salvador.

Family gardens in Guatemala

Young single adults and service missionaries built five family gardens in the Choantonio community in March. The Church worked with United Way to gather supplies and building materials for the gardens, which will especially benefit several low-income families.

Maria Estela Sirin López, one of the mothers who benefited from a new garden, said, “I feel very happy to have this support for my family, it will help me a lot to feed my three children, because now our situation is going to change.”

The volunteers spent around nine hours building the gardens and planting different vegetables to help promote childhood nutrition and self-reliance in the village, explained the Church’s Guatemala Newsroom.

Volunteer Leonel Guim said, “I feel quite happy to help and benefit these families who need it. I also benefited, because I learned to do some things that can be useful to me in the future.”

Neonatal and maternal training in Paraguay

The Church joined forces with Paraguay’s Ministry of Health to combat maternal and infant death through trainings and classes for midwives and nurses.

The “Helping Babies Breathe” and “Helping Mothers to Survive” courses are a series of workshops put on by doctors who voluntarily travel to different countries and instruct local health officials — who then return to their own communities and train others in their clinics and hospitals.

For the December 2023 training, the Church donated the medical supplies, training kits, mannequins, teaching materials and guides for 500 health professionals in Paraguay.

Operation Smile in Peru

Volunteers from the Church spent several days helping Operation Smile in Peru. The nonprofit organization provides free surgeries for children with cleft lip and palate.

The volunteers loaded and unloaded materials, supplies and equipment at Dos de Mayo Hospital in Lima from March 12-18. During that time period, Operation Smile carried out 37 operations and reconstructive surgeries for children at the hospital, reported Peru Newsroom.