Tens of thousands of people in Peru are trying to rebuild their lives after heavy rains led to flooding and landslides in several regions in March and April.
News reports say the floods directly affected more than 114,900 households, most of them in the Lambayeque, Piura and Lima regions.
In response, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has spent the last few weeks delivering food, clothing and other aid to help people who lost their homes and possessions or who are still at risk in vulnerable locations.
The members of the Church wanted to follow the example of Christ and serve others as He would, reported the Church’s Peru Newsroom in a series of articles highlighting the aid.
Volunteer labor and messages of hope
Church members in the Los Pinos Ward in the Piura Perú Castilla Stake held a communty support day on April 6 in the city of Piura where they went through flooded homes and removed water, placed sandbags and fixed roofs affected by the heavy rains.
Another group of volunteers from the elders quorum and Relief Society delivered food and clothing they had collected to donate to the residents who lost all their belongings due to the flooding. The families thanked the volunteers for their help and aid.
On April 1, members of the Church in La Campiña gathered clothing, food, water, toileteries and other items. The Relief Society was in charge of organizing and distributing the relief kits, by working to identify families in need with the leaders of the town of Villa Nueva Navarra in the south of Lima.
Members of the Lima Peru Wiesse Stake served their neighbors on March 25, by bringing food, water, clothing, blankets and diapers to an area of north Lima that had been affected by landslides. The volunteers also brought messages of encouragement and hope to the residents of Villa La Paz de Jicamarca.
Church members collected and prepared the aid at their meetinghouse, then took it to deliver house to house where it was received by families that included older adults, children and people with disabilities.
Kitchen kits and food deliveries in Peru
The Church provided 500 kitchen kits to be delivered through local district governments to soup kitchens and common pots in multiple districts. Soup kitchens and common pots are community-based centers where people in need can receive meals either free or at a reduced charge.
Working with the Ministerio de Desarrollo e Inclusión Social, or the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion, the kits were able to help organizations serve their vulnerable populations who were facing increased need because of the natural disasters.
The kitchen kits that were delivered contained pots, pans, a blender, a set of steel knives, stainless steel strainers, ladles, skimmers, bowls and cutting board sets, among other items.
On March 30, the Church delivered kitchen kits for soup kitchens and common pots affected by the rains and landslides in the districts of Lurigancho-Chosica and Chaclacayo in east Lima.
Then on March 31, Church representatives delivered kits to the district of San Juan de Lurigancho. The mayor took the Church representatives to visit one of the common pots and see how the donation would be used to help others.
Meanwhile in Piura, the Church delivered 80 bags of food in coordination with local officials in the province of Ayabaca for those affected by the recent rains and floods.
The food bags contained evaporated milk, prepared flour, oatmeal, canned fish, lentils, sugar, vegetable oil, noodles and rice. Each bag weighed approximately 15 kilograms, or 33 pounds.
