The weekend of Sept. 27-28 brought rain and a couple days of relief to the folks living in Paraguay's vast Chaco region.

Still, the first rainfall in six months was negligible and did little to moisten the ongoing drought that has parched the Chaco and caused widespread hunger.

"It wasn't much rain, but the people were still happy," said Myriam Maluff, the Church's public affairs director in Paraguay.

The Church's Humanitarian Services, along with the Paraguayan members and local Church leaders, are doing what they can to help. The Church recently sent a 40-ton shipment of provisions to the state of Boqueron. There the provisions were distributed between the area's indigenous and peasant communities, according to Sister Maluff.

A second shipment of about 30 tons of sugar, powdered milk, rice, flour, salt and beans was sent a short time later to the Chaco region, located in northwestern Paraguay. The donated food, which was divided among members and others alike, has brought grateful attention to the Church in the South American nation.

"The [Boqueron] governor and the media thanked the Church for its effort and support," Sister Maluff said, adding that news crews filed stories about the shipments as Church relief trucks left the capital of Asuncion en route to the Chaco.

The drought has claimed the lives of farm animals in the region and destroyed much of the area's limited crop yield, Sister Maluff said. The area is considered by many to be in a state of emergency and hunger.

Church members from Asuncion and other areas pitched in by dividing the food before it was shipped to the Chaco. The provisions came in large bags, so members divided the goods into smaller bags that could be distributed to 20,000 families. Each family bag contained five food items.

The Church is also helping with a local Chaco program designed to feed indigent children, Sister Maluff said.

One of South America's poorest countries, Paraguay continues to endure a sour economy. Sadly, the Chaco region has endured a dry season which will likely extend the ongoing drought.

The Church enjoys an interesting history in the Chaco region. In 1980, a colony of 200 Nivacle Indians who had returned to their ancestral homeland in the Gran Chaco joined the Church. The colony, under its own leadership for 10 years, continued to progress into the 1990s, according to the Deseret News Church Almanac.

Several Nivacles participated in the 2002 dedication of the Asuncion Paraguay Temple.

E-mail: jswensen@desnews.com