Global Youth Day (GYD), a global annual event created by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is marked by outreach by young people in communities around the world. This year, these activities became even more necessary. According to a survey by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), released in December 2020, with the pandemic, around 86 million Brazilians saw a decrease in their income, and 20.7 million people in the country stopped eating because there was no money to buy groceries during this period.

Thinking about this reality, Adventist youth from the south of Bahia joined the Easter Mutirão project as the main activity for GYD. The purpose was to collect food for basic food baskets to be targeted at needy families, with deliveries taking place before Holy Week

The food collection was carried out in several ways, following COVID guidelines for the safety of volunteers and donors. In Pau Brasil, young people went out in pairs in the streets, collecting food in the neighborhood. In Eunápolis, youth from the neighborhoods of ABBI and Vida Total did a drive-thru. In the city of Santa Cruz Cabrália, even a wheelbarrow was used to optimize the transport of donations. In just an hour and a half, the team from this municipality collected 184 kilos (405 pounds) of food. In total, more than six tons of food were collected throughout the southern region of Bahia.

The youth leader for this region, pastor Jádison Encarnação, was happy with the volume of donations and said that this mobilization is part of the essence of being a young Adventist. 

“Adventist young people have a purpose to emphasize 'young people for young people, young people for the church, and young people for their peers,’ he says. “For me, nothing is clearer than Global Youth Day to inspire all of this.”

Even after the specific initiative made by the young people, fundraising for Easter Mutirão will continue in the south of Bahia with the support of the whole church and under the coordination of the Adventist Solidarity Action (ASA) . The goal is that at least 100 families will benefit from basic food baskets in each district. For the cities of Porto Seguro and Eunápolis, the goal is to reach a total of 3,000 basic food baskets.

In addition to the collection of food, young people from the city of Buerarema identified a need for the São Sebastião region and distributed a resulting 100 breakfast kits to the local residents. 

"I felt more human in being able to help needy families in the face of this situation in which we are living," says Hortência Oliveira, a 20-year-old volunteer.

In Arataca, the efforts were aimed at health professionals. Young people gave a quick serenade and passed out gifts as a form of gratitude for all the work the medical professionals have done during this pandemic. 

“Thank you for being part of our day and risking your lives for our sake,” was written on one of the posters taken to the staff.

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