In March and April, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported about two dozen donations to assist the needy throughout Latin America. Here are 10 medically related donations the Church made in Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay.
Argentina
1. In March, the Church’s Argentina Newsroom reported a donation of office equipment to the Mar de Plata Regional Hemotherapy Center, allowing for more organization and efficiency in assisting community patients. The center and the Church also highlighted their standing agreement to conduct four blood donations annually.
2. The Church donated over a dozen pieces of equipment in March to upgrade an operating room in the María Curie Municipal Cancer Hospital in Buenos Aires. The items include a mechanical operating table, a portable ultrasound machine with abdominal transducer to guide biopsy punctures, a surgical lamp, an anesthesia machine, an anesthetic vaporizer, a multiparameter monitor, a capnograph, a diode laser, a video bronchoscope, a bipolar resectoscope and others. Where 60 patients a month could be accommodated previously, the new equipment will increase efficiency and allow about 250 patients a month to be treated in the operating room.
3. At Ramón Carrillo Hospital in San Vincente in April, the Church donated a hematocrit centrifuge, an electrocardiograph, two wheelchairs, two stretchers for transfer with railings and IV poles and a three-movement orthopedic articulated bed. Hospital director Dr. Jessica Derissio said, “This donation not only represents invaluable material help but also a gesture of spiritual support and solidarity that strengthens our daily work.”
Colombia
4. In March, the Church’s Colombia Newsroom reported a donation in Riohacha of a C-Arm machine, an X-ray device used during surgeries, allowing medical staff to conduct safer and more optimal procedures. María Angélica Martínez Camacho, director of the hospital, stated: “We can unite with a single purpose, to help the population. For us, the ESE (State Social Enterprise) Hospital Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, it is a real blessing that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has managed to articulate this donation with us and that today it is materialized for the ESE and for the community in general.”
5. On April 8 in Cúcuta, the Church made a monetary donation to MedGlobal that will provide general medical consultations, first aid kits, food, hydration supplies and nutritional supplements for 31,000 migrants and internally displaced persons, prioritizing children and newborns. The donation will also help facilitate workshops for community leaders to develop capacities to identify medical emergencies.
6. A donation made to the humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on April 2 will help provide hot meals and primary health-care services to 37,500 migrants in Santander.
Peru
7. The Church’s Peru Newsroom reported that in Lima on March 22, service missionaries delivered over 60 pieces of medical equipment and specialized furniture to the Ministry of Health, intended for use in Andahuaylas. The ministry’s general director of international technical cooperation, Normy Wieslawa De Pawlikowski Amiel, thanked the Church, recalled its donations in past emergencies and said he considers the Church a permanent ally.
8. On April 24, in Ventanilla, Callao, the Church made a monetary donation to the World Food Program to help reduce anemia by 5% among children under 5 years old. The donation will help pay for iron supplements, healthy foods and the promotion of good nutrition among families. The Church was represented by Elder Jorge T. Becerra, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the South America Northwest Area presidency.
9. A donation of medical equipment made on April 16 to the National Maternal Perinatal Institute in Lima is expected to benefit about 28,000 people, mainly mothers, receive 1,700 ultrasounds, 1,800 infertility consultations, 7,000 cesarean sections, care for 4,000 newborns and around 13,500 general consultations.
Uruguay
10. In April, the Church gave the Paso de los Toros Health Center dental and gynecological instruments, according to the Church’s Uruguay Newsroom. The donation includes two gynecology stretchers, an automatic external defibrillator, an electrocardiograph, hysterometers, wheelchairs, three nursing carts, a dental chair, three upper and lower premolar forceps and three metal boxes for large instruments.
