Adventist youth donate blood in Chile after COVID-19 pandemic

Adventist youth participating in the Lives for Lives project. [Photo Credit: Metropolitan Association of Chile, Cristian Valdés]

South American Division

Adventist youth donate blood in Chile after COVID-19 pandemic

About fifty young people participated in the first Life for Lives project in Santiago, Chile, since the pandemic began.

Chile | Maribel Gastelum

Despite still living in a “state of catastrophe”, as decreed by the Chilean government because of the Covid-19 pandemic, about fifty young Adventists of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Santiago, Chile (AMCh), visited the headquarters of the Church in the Metropolitan region to donate blood for the Life for Lives project on Saturday, October 10th.
Pastor Cristian Valdés, director of the AMCh Youth Ministry, said that “our work as Christians is to be able to help by serving others and having as our motto: Young people [serving] young people and [serving] the Church, young people [serving] their fellow men. Our mission in this world is to be the hands of Jesus ”.

Valdés also mentioned that the health staff of the blood collection entity was happy that the young people of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are voluntarily and altruistically involved in helping others through programs such as Life for Lives.

“There were several reasons that prompted me to participate in Life for Lives, but the main one [was that donations have dropped during this] period of quarantine because of how complicated it can be to get to the [center to do so]. I believe that as young Adventists we must get involved in these activities since we must not forget that we have a social responsibility and a mission to fulfill, ”said Barbara Barriga, a member of the Porvenir Seventh-day Adventist church.

The activity was organized by the Youth Ministry of the AMCh in conjunction with the blood collecting entity, which ensured compliance with the necessary sanitary measures to protect the health of all participants. This was the first Life for Lives project that has been carried out in the Metropolitan Region since the global pandemic began.

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