Increasing numbers of migrant children and teenagers are overcrowding many humanitarian shelters in northern Mexico and making it difficult for the shelters to provide food, water, sanitation and hygiene.

In order to help, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave a donation to Save the Children — an international humanitarian aid organization focusing on the needs of children and adolescents.

Through this donation, food, cleaning kits and personal hygiene supplies were provided to humanitarian shelters in Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, Reynosa, Matamoros, Hermosillo and Nogales, reported the Church’s Mexico Newsroom. 

The project also included workshops for the volunteers and staff on health, nutrition, sanitation and personal hygiene. 

Newsroom reported that the donation benefitted more than a thousand children and adolescents, as well as more than 900 adults.

Fátima Andraca, director of programs for Save the Children Mexico, left; Sandra Luz Cuéllar, president of the Mexico City Churubusco Stake Relief Society, center; President Celso P. Moreno Arrieta, president of the Mexico City Churubusco Stake right, attend an official event marking the Church’s donation to Save the Children to help serve refugees and migrants at shelters in Mexico in October 2022.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Mexico City Churubusco Stake President Celso P. Moreno Arrieta said, for the Church, “it is very important to help others and even more, to protect the youth, who in the future will become the leaders who will rule the world.”

Fátima Andraca, director of programs for Save the Children Mexico, expressed the joy that the foundation experiences working in partnership with the Church. The two organizations have been working together on this project since November 2021, said Newsroom.

Church donates kitchen to refugee center

Thousands of people are flooding through the community of Reynosa in Tamaulipas, Mexico, in need of food and support. The migrants and refugees — mostly Haitians — hope to receive humanitarian asylum in the United States.

The Senda de Vida II Refugee Center depends on volunteers to feed all the newcomers. But preparing the food has been a challenge, as the meals were prepared outdoors on improvised stoves.

New stoves and cooking areas at the Senda de Vida II Refugee Center in Tamaulipas, Mexico, in October 2022.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Recently The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated a kitchen to the center equipped with industrial appliances necessary for the preservation and preparation of food, reported the Church’s Mexico Newsroom.

President, Monserrat Aguilar, second counselor in the Reynosa Mexico East Stake presidency, and stake Relief Society president Margarita Abigail Romero helped deliver the donation. 

Magalie Rodrigué, who oversees the center’s volunteers said, “With stoves, refrigerators and freezers we will be able to prepare food with greater hygiene for our brothers.”

Pastor José Miguel Cristóbal Juárez thanked the Church for all the support they have given to both the Senda de Vida II shelter and another refugee center, Senda de Vida I.

Pastor José Miguel Cristóbal Juárez, coordinator of the Senda de Vida II shelter; Juan Gilberto Banda, director of communication for the Church in northern Tamaulipas; Monserrat Aguilar, counselor in the Reynosa Mexico East Stake presidency; Hector Olivares, director of government and religious affairs of Reynosa; Rosario Rodriguez, councilor of the city council and president of the commission for assistance to migrants in the council speak together in the new kitchen donated to the shelter in October 2022.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints