She's watched mothers braid the hair of their little children after dressing them in "probably the nicest thing they own to come and get a vaccination."

During the next 10 days, more than 7 million children in Mozambique, ages 9 months to 15 years, will be vaccinated for measles, receiving "the jab, as they call it," along with drops of polio vaccine and vitamin A administered orally. Huge banners hang across both village trails and city streets, announcing the time and place. LDS youths in local congregations have helped publicize the public health initiative, going from one isolated door to the next, spreading the word in rural areas far beyond the villages and towns.

"We have 16 branches (of the church) here. The volunteers have gone door to door and are helping with crowd control," she said.

On Sunday, Sister Parkin and her party attended a small LDS branch, where members performed a skit they had been offering in area villages about the importance of vaccinating the children.

"They dressed up, sang songs and made rhymes" of the message.

Many are simply grateful to have a purpose in volunteering to help inform villagers, she said.

"There's so much unemployment here. For these people to even understand what it means to volunteer is just exciting," she said.

She believes they have taken LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley's advice to " 'Forget yourself and go to work.' The blessing of having something to do has brought joy."

Olympic gold medalist Maria Lurdes Mutola (800 meters, 2000 Games) has joined the publicity campaign, Sister Parkin said, lending her name, image and encouragement to the effort.

"She has been on posters everywhere with a little Mozambique child, running on a track. She's kind of the idol for young women in Mozambique — 34 years old and still running and just incredible," she said.

Mozambique is a nation of nearly 20 million people, only 40 percent of whom have access to clean water, Sister Parkin said. HIV, measles, malaria and polio are the major health challenges, and the Measles Initiative is addressing two of the four. In the meantime, 1.2 million children live in orphanages, many of their families devastated by a disease that has become of greater concern to health officials across Africa than anything else: AIDS.

Adoption is frowned upon inside the country, she said, as cultural norms view it as something approaching child trafficking. After visiting the Padre Andre orphanage in Maputo, she was impressed that the older children care for the younger ones, doing their best to form their own version of families.

"There are tons of orphans here and . . . orphanages everywhere," she said.

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E-mail: carrie@desnews.com