This month, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their friends and neighbors joined throughout the Africa West Africa to perform acts of service.
The All-Africa Service Project is a coordinated event held annually in August. Thousands of volunteers from 130 stakes in nine countries chose projects in their communities that would have the most impact for their area, reported the Church’s Africa Newsroom.
Stake leaders worked with community leaders to find opportunities on Aug. 19. Community members were also invited to participate.
“We believe that the two great commandments are to love God and to love our fellow man. We show our love for God by serving our neighbors and doing what we can to bless the lives of people in our villages and communities,” said Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, General Authority Seventy and president of the Africa West Area.
“The All-Africa Service Project provides our members in all countries of the Africa West Area the opportunity to bless the lives of their friends and neighbors and by doing so show their love for their Heavenly Father.”

On the day of the service projects, most of the West African countries received various amounts of rain. But that did not deter the volunteers.
Some of the projects included installing reflective poles on roadsides, changing mosquito netting at a school, blood donation campaigns, painting, tree planting, pothole filling, cleaning gutters, weeding and cleaning community buildings and roadsides.
While the goal was to serve their communities, the participants also received great blessings themselves, said Fred E. Anyin, the first counselor in the Lagos Nigeria Yaba Stake presidency.
“We choose to serve because service can bring us great blessings during difficult times. We forget ourselves and our problems and think of others,” he said.
Chioma Onuoha of the Abuja Nigeria Wuse Stake said that everyone benefited from the service project at the Kara Primary Health Center. “Health is wealth, and we chose to beautify the health center because it makes it a better place for all members of our community,” she said.
See more photos of the projects below.










