The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spent the month of April delivering donations to classrooms, agencies, hospitals and others in several cities in Peru.
The efforts are a part of the Church’s efforts to care for those in need. Recently, the Church News reported on how members of the Church in Peru helped their communities after massive flooding and landslides by collecting food and clothing, making deliveries and performing labor to serve people who lost their homes and possessions.
Below are other ways the Church is serving in Peru, as taken from reports from the Church’s Peru Newsroom.
Furniture and equipment for classrooms, other agencies
On April 13, El Centro de Estudios y Desarrollo Humano Integral, or the Center for Studies and Integral Human Development, opened two new fully-equipped classrooms in Yura with the help of the Church.
The classrooms each have capacity for 40 students and will be used by gastronomy and administration students.
Elder Rudy Palhua, Area Seventy, congratulated the entire CEDHI team for their work and efforts to bless the community through quality education.
The Church also previously contributed to the CEDHI nursery, where children are cared for while their parents study.
On April 12, the Church donated dozens of new chairs and tables to two educational institutions in the city of Chiclayo. The primary school and secondary school are able to use the new furniture in their classrooms to help students learn.
In another donation in April, the Church gave oxygen concentrators to several health centers of the Coronel Portillo Health Network. The donated equipment is expected to help patients with cases of pneumonia, asthma and others.
And a health center and police station received new furniture from the Church in Piura and Tumbes on April 14.
Entrepreneur kits and training
A Church donation will help support women and families in Arequipa. On April 28, Elder Jorge F. Zeballos, General Authority Seventy and president of the South America Northwest Area, presented the money to Cáritas Diocesana de Arequipa.
The project will develop and strengthen job opportunities for women heads of households in the city — benefiting more than 720 families who have the most need.
The first stage will give the women kits including pastry utensils, a blender and an oven. They will then be trained in how to prepare different kinds of foods and be prepared to start ventures to improve the quality of life of their families, reported Peru Newsroom.
After this phase, the equipment will be used to train students at a new cooking school at the Center for Studies and Integral Human Development.
Meanwhile, the city of Lima, in coordination with the Church, delivered entrepreneurship kits of materials to 147 women to help them develop their ventures, increase their earning potential and gain more self-reliance. The women are entrepreneurs in the fields of textile manufacturing, amigurumi, Ayacuchano embroidery and Andean crafts.
Johel Valdivia Manrique, a manager of Welfare and Self-Reliance for the Church in Peru, helped deliver the kits, saying that while all face difficulties, they are able to overcome challenges with the help of others.
The donation was made on April 20, but from January to March, more than 500 women in Lima were also trained to enhance their personal and productive skills, in order to be able to increase their self-employment or entrepreneurship opportunities.
The target audience was women aged 15 and over who are vulnerable either because they are teen mothers, victims of violence, living in poverty, migrants or heads of households.
Wheelchair donations
The Church donated 13 wheelchairs to the Dra. Adriana Rebaza Flores National Rehabilitation Institute in the Chorrillos district of Peru.
The April 26 ceremony was attended by the 13 patients and their families. One of the patients, Reynaldo Rojas, said, “Thanks to these chairs we can move independently. I thank the Church of Jesus Christ for the love they have for their fellow man.”
Peru Newsroom explained that the Church has a good relationship with the institute and regularly donates wheelchairs to help patients..
President Enrique Abraham Waiton, first counselor in the Lima Peru Chorrillos Stake, said at the event that members of the Church strive to be like Jesus Christ, by providing a service to those who need it most.
Blood donations
Blood donation events with the Church helped the communities of San Juan de Lurigancho on April 22, Puente Piedra on April 15 and Surco on March 25.
Licensed medical technologist Joel Lázaro Jacome thanked the Church of Jesus Christ for the support through blood drives. “Every time we join with you members of the Church, we strengthen our goal of helping more people in need of blood,” he said.
