Christmas Mutirão donates half a ton of food to community hospital :: Adventist News Network

Dec 22, 2017
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Bom Retiro do Sul, Brazil
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Andréia Silva

Since the beginning of October, Adventist churches throughout Brazil have been involved in the Christmas Mutirão, or Christmas Drive. The drives primary objective is to promote a better Christmas for people in need by collecting donations of food, clothing, toys and other items. In the city of Bom Retiro do Sul, in Rio Grande do Sul, dozens of families, in partnership with a footwear retailer have collected half a ton of non-perishable food. And, in early December, the food was donated to the Sant’Ana Hospital of Charity (HCSA). 

“The end of the week at the HCSA was marked by generosity and dedication, as it received a gift of 501 kilograms, or 1,104 pounds, of non-perishable food. The hospital team has only to thank the Atelier Adrimelo and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, who dedicated their Saturday to working on behalf of the hospital and the Bom Retiro community. Everyone was very receptive to the people, welcoming them with affection and joy during the delivery of the food,” the hospital’s press office reported in a note published on social media. 

The campaign will continue in the city and in all the churches of the central region of Rio Grande do Sul in the coming days. Gymkhanas, community fairs and various company partnerships have been part of the Christmas Mutirão 2017. 

The Christmas Mutirão is a social project of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Brazil that primarily provides a worthy Christmas dinner for people living in poverty and who do not even have the basics for survival: a plate of food. 

However, the project goes beyond caring for the needy individuals and families. It also aims to make people aware of children and the elderly living in charitable institutions, and provides them with food and other goods collected. 

In addition to food, Mutirão de Natal collects and distributes clothes, shoes and toys for children who would never have the opportunity of this joy. It also motivates its participants and collaborators to donate blood and bone marrow that are life to so many sick people, and mobilizes them to implement other social projects of community development. 

The Christmas Mutirão leads us to look with love for those who are suffering in the slavery of poverty, misery, hunger, illiteracy, rejection, helplessness, social exclusion and encourages us to act not only at Christmas but in the New Year, February, March, … all year long. 

To learn more about the Christmas Drive, click here.