PROVO — During a weekend visit to Utah, the first lady of Peru shared her vision to lift Peruvian children out of sickness and poverty with leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and students at Brigham Young University.

Maria del Pilar Nores Bodereau de Garcia, wife of Alan Garcia, the country's Apristsa Party leader, met with BYU students Friday afternoon after a Thursday visit with the LDS's Relief Society Presidency.

"She was invited by the church to come to (General) Conference," said Erlend Peterson, associate international vice president at BYU. "It's nice she'd come here and see the church up close. It's a nice exchange that takes place — students can hear (her), and she understands more about the university and the church and can (go back) and benefit her country."

De Garcia explained in Spanish that despite a year of record growth in Peru — a nearly 6 percent jump in the gross national product from 2005 — the women and children who live far away from centers of commerce and trade around the coast don't see those benefits.

Among the biggest problems for children are malnutrition and disease.

Many children die early from rampant respiratory or gastrointestinal diseases, de Garcia said. Respiratory diseases are most often caused by indoor cooking fires that fill window-less homes with smoky, toxic air.

"It's a real problem for all of Latin America," de Garcia said. "The air (inside such a home) is 10 times more contaminated than the (World Health Organization) allows."

De Garcia — through The Institute of Work and Family and its program "Sembrando," meaning "sowing" — is helping individuals get cooking stoves with chimneys that are not only more efficient but safer.

The program has also introduced an improved metal plow that mirrors the traditional wooden plows but lasts much longer and saves time and effort for the farmers.

Those are the right ways to approach the poverty situation, said BYU student Kirk Snider, who recently returned from a mission to Lima, Peru.

"You can't just throw a tractor at them," he said. "I thought the solutions that she gave were really practical."

De Garcia also wants to combat the high rates of illiteracy through classes and workshops.

"Illiteracy affects 6.1 percent of the men and 17.7 percent of the women," de Garcia said.

The Sembrando program is not about simply treating symptoms, de Garcia said, but helping Peruvians embrace ways to permanently improve their conditions and become more self-sufficient.

She summed it up on a Power Point slide:

"Our objective is to ... go where the most people need help and offer (help) so they can develop."

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E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com