All-Africa Mormon Helping Hands Day

Members of the Port-Bouet Abidjan Stake participate in the annual All-Africa Mormon Helping Hands Day, 2018.

Since 2007, Latter-day Saints throughout Africa have worked with local governments and community leaders to identify areas where they can help clean and improve the local environment. Donning yellow Mormon Helping Hands vests, Saints have donated hundreds of thousands of hours to the annual All-Africa Mormon Helping Hands Day. In dozens of countries, Saints have cleaned public places, repaired roads, built bridges, and beautified their communities. “This day of service offers a simple and easy way of living our religion,” said Elder Adesina J. Olukanni, an Area Seventy in the Africa West Area. “It feels good to do good, it helps build testimony, it helps in building character, and it helps in removing strife and uniting communities.”

In Côte d’Ivoire, the day of service has become an important annual event. In 2012 members from throughout the country participated in projects to clean a police station, two hospitals, and the area surrounding the Ivorian National Institute for the Advancement of the Blind. Members of the Cocody Côte d’Ivoire Stake cleaned the local police station inside and out. “This is a very civic act,” the station chief’s assistant said. “This should be an example for all the community. I pray my Lord for the fast growth of your church in the country.”