For the last four months, members of the Praia Cape Verde Stake have been ministering to the Central da Praia jail, which is within the stake’s boundaries.
During one of the visits, the director of the jail told the stake members that the jail is overcrowded and had a huge lack of personal hygiene products for the inmates.
Because of this, the stake created a service project to gather, assemble and deliver personal hygiene kits for the jail — reaching a total of 1,300 kits.
“We invited all our young people together with the missionaries and together they organized and prepared the hygiene kits,” said Praia Cape Verde Stake President Leonel Da Cruz.
The volunteers sorted toothbrushes, soap, deodorant and other items from multiple boxes into individual bags, thereby packing and preparing the kits for delivery. Then, young adults who were over the age of 18 were allowed to go to the jail to help deliver the kits.
President Cruz and his counselors, Valdir Lopes Fernandes Sanches and Helder da Veiga Fernandes, and other stake members went with the young adults on March 20 to make the delivery.
While there, President Cruz was interviewed by a local television station about the service project.
“During the interview I spoke about the mission of the Church, which is to alleviate suffering, promote self-reliance and offer opportunity for service, following Jesus Christ’s admonition to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty and welcome strangers, clothe the naked and visit the sick and the imprisoned and afflicted,” President Cruz told the Church News.
He said the Church has participated in many humanitarian and self-reliance efforts to assist the inhabitants of the islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of west Africa. Some of those projects have involved safe drinking water, wheelchair distribution, vision care, mother-baby training and immunization efforts.
Recently, the Church donated an autoclave or steam sterilizer to the health department in Calheta-São Miguel.
The Church has been officially present in Cape Verde since 1990. The Praia Cape Verde Temple was dedicated on June 19, 2022. On the eve of the temple dedication, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave the youth a three-fold message: “We love you. We need you. We promise you.”
Earlier this March, Sister Tracy Y. Browning, second counselor in the Primary general presidency, and Sister Rebecca L. Craven, second counselor in the Young Women general presidency, held meetings in Praia where they testified to children and youth that they can seek Christ’s voice and live according to His gospel.