While serving in the El Salvador Santa Ana Mission, Sister Cassie Hancock visited a family where the baby was being fed coffee. After asking her companion about it, her companion replied that the family must not be able to afford formula.
Hancock saw the prevalence of malnutrition on her mission and researched it after returning home to Arizona in 2019. Then she returned to El Salvador in 2020 with a new mission: starting the Materna Foundation.
Over the past five years, since-married Hancock de Afane has relied on her faith in Jesus Christ to find families most in need of the Materna Foundation’s assistance, eventually helping over 5,000 mothers. Through this endeavor, she met Adriana Tadeo and Ninfa Pagoada, faithful women who also use their mission connections to serve at home and across Central America.
Hancock de Afane said about the support: “There’s always individuals that are members of the Church ready to serve in their communities. I think that’s a part of the culture.”
‘Women of faith’
After Hancock arrived back in El Salvador, Church members there heard about her efforts and recommended more places to visit and people who could help.
“All of the connections that we made were inspired,” Hancock de Afane said about how the foundation grew. “Every time we expanded, it was through a member of the Church.”
Pagoada, a co-director of the Materna Foundation in Honduras, added: “As women of faith, we know how important God’s children are throughout the world, and we care about the newborns and supporting the parents.”
‘The Lord consecrates our efforts’
On every trip to Central America since 2020, Hancock de Afane has prayed for God to “take us to the right places, where we will have the right resources and that the right people will be there that need us.” With faith, she and her team have traveled to unfamiliar villages, guided by the Spirit.
Hancock de Afane shared instances where, despite their best efforts, they had to step away from some families. “But then a year later, we’re reviewing the cases and somehow it got figured out. That was a huge testimony to me that the Lord consecrates our efforts.”
‘Between doubt and faith, miracles happen’
For Tadeo, the Lord consecrated her efforts to help her village in Nahuizalco, El Salvador, learn to read. With 90% of her village being illiterate, she taught herself at a young age. In 2012, she sought to teach her village, but the adults were unreceptive.
That same year, she met the missionaries, who answered all of her questions. Tadeo was able to help teach all of her family the gospel because she could read. She served in the Chile Santiago South Mission from 2014 to 2015, and inspired all her siblings to also serve missions.
After returning home, Tadeo remained committed to helping her village and focused on teaching the children. Sister Hancock served in her area at that time. They reconnected when Hancock de Afane visited with maternal supplies, and Tadeo helped distribute the supplies and classes to mothers.
“Between doubt and faith, miracles happen,” Tadeo said about working with the Materna Foundation. She and Hancock de Afane started the tutoring program and helped send the children from Tadeo’s village to high school and college.
‘My faith is strengthened’
“Through faith, we can see each day that miracles haven’t ceased,” Pagoada said about the role of faith. Before partnering with her old mission companion, Hancock de Afane, and the Materna Foundation, Pagoada had served in local clinics and with national organizations in maternal care in Honduras.
Since 2020, Pagoada has helped bring supplies and aid to her country, witnessing many miracles. One particular instance involved a malnourished 1-year-old boy with inflamed lungs and parents desperate for help. Pagoada remembered her heart trembling but having faith that the baby could be saved.
Every month, the little baby grew from the nourishment, eventually walking and talking. “My faith is strengthened every time I can provide service with love,” Pagoada said.
Community versus abroad
Hancock de Afane echoed Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson’s invite in her May 2025 devotional, saying that community service is just as important as efforts abroad.
As more volunteers join the Materna Foundation, most are returned missionaries who use their mission connections to expand efforts to Mexico and Guatemala.
But the beginnings of the Materna Foundation started in both El Salvador and Arizona, United States, which is where Hancock de Afane is from.
Hancock de Afane emphasized the benefits of serving abroad for perspective. However, she believes community service empowers volunteers to answer calls from foundations like Materna.
