Brazilian Children Bring Help to Elderly

By Nei Garcia

For the second year, Brazilian children in the Church donated their holiday, Child’s Day, to serving the elderly. Some 40,000 members of the Church and friends, including 25,000 children in their Helping Hands vests, assisted nearly 16,000 elderly people in 120 cities and 26 states in Brazil.

Prior to this event, the children joined youth and adults to assemble kits of personal supplies and to paint and prepare cards to give to the elderly. The children then went to 300 nursing homes to deliver the kits and share experiences, making it a day of celebration for all generations.

In various cities, parents of the young volunteers had a memorable day repairing homes and providing haircuts, manicures, and other grooming for the elderly. Other activities included choir performances, plays, and dances.

In Belo Horizonte, 500 boys and girls gathered in a plaza and from there divided up and visited 12 nursing homes. In one of the homes, Maria do Carmo, a 98-year-old resident who has no grandchildren of her own, for one day gained many of them. “This is so wonderful,” she exclaimed. “What can I say? I’m so happy!”

In Porto Alegre, more than 3,000 volunteers visited more than 1,300 elderly in 40 nursing homes. In the state of São Paulo, volunteers visited and helped some 4,500 people in 45 cities and 90 nursing homes.

As in other Brazilian regions, members in the North and Northeast regions enthusiastically participated, visiting more than 8,000 elderly.

In Salvador, Abrigo de São Gabriel’s 45 elderly residents received gifts from 70 children, including 9-year-old Gabriela Conçeicão, who hugged her newest adopted grandmother, saying, “She was a child once. We need to take care of them as if they belonged to our family.”

In Minas Gerais, the Uberaba Brazil Stake visited the 10 nursing homes located in their city. President Erick Maximo was very excited with the project and pleased with the members of the stake. “In the day reserved for them, our children gave a real gift to their neighbors; they gave of themselves in a moment of closeness and love between generations,” he said.

At different times throughout the country, TV Globo, the largest television station in Brazil, broadcast a 30-second notice about the project. In the majority of the cities and in nearly all state capitals, television and radio stations covered the events.

In Natal, in northeastern Brazil, Soyonara Alves, a journalist for TV Globo, commented, “They showed a lot of love; instead of receiving, they gave.”

Other TV stations covered the project at different times of the day, reaching 318 cities in the state of São Paulo, and the interest multiplied in other regions of the country.

All the events were under the direction of the coordinator of the Helping Hands program in each region of the country. The coordinators received help from private companies and government entities and from the media, besides getting help from Church Humanitarian Services.

The Helping Hands project has been in action since 2001 and has involved thousands of social services agencies in the country. In 2005 there were more than 150 projects in various cities. In April 2005 about 50,000 volunteers refurbished and cleaned approximately 200 public schools throughout the nation.

Members in Brazil visit with the residents of a living facility for the elderly during Child’s Day. (Photograph courtesy of Brazil Public Affairs.)