Adventist youth help at-risk pregnant women with needed supplies, encouragement :: Adventist News Network

Jul 05, 2020  |  Maceió, Brazil  |  Jordana Graci

Assembling a baby’s layette is a special moment for expectant mothers. Sometimes, these parents-to-be don’t always have the means to purchase these necessities.

That’s what happened to Lavínia Bispo, who is 23 and expecting her first child. Married and with a planned pregnancy, she saw her world fall apart when the marriage ended. At eight months pregnant and unemployed, she left the city of Maceió, capital of the state of Alagoas, with to restart her life in Curitiba, Paraná. “When I got here, I had nothing for my son. And now, I have practically everything ”, she said.

Another woman, whom we’ll call “LL,” age 16, is also pregnant. The pregnancy was frightening for the teenager, who had to face the new arrival alone and without financial support. 

“People started to come to help me, to ask if I needed anything if I needed to talk, and I started to see that I was not alone, because there are concerned people wanting to help, so I can’t give up,” the young woman said.

Along with the lack of income, the social isolation adopted because of the pandemic of the new coronavirus does not allow them to have the traditional baby shower to collect the items needed for babies. But they have the help of a group of young volunteers from the Central Seventh-day Adventist church in Curitiba.

Love in action

For the church’s young adult leader, Felipe Dias, such direct action to help new mothers was an unusual step, but one deemed necessary. 

“We are used to visiting nursing homes, orphanages, to distribute basic food baskets, but a situation such as these two expectant mothers we’d never done before. It was really cool, and very rewarding,” Dias said.

The unusual request required the young adults to educate themselves about the needs of new mothers. Architect Kensoly Dias, one of the volunteers, said the solution was to use the internet. “We had no idea what a ‘breeches’ was, for example, then we searched Google for things we didn’t know,” the young man said.

According to Kensoly, several people helped with donations. “We received a lot of donations and the campaign took on a greater proportion than we imagined. Things started to arrive and when we saw them, we already had everything we needed.”

In addition to the two complete layettes, which included diapers, clothes, hygiene products, and furniture, the mothers-to-be were also thrilled to receive a hand-made piece of artwork with their babies’ names, painted by another volunteer, Fernanda Bihaiko.

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site