WWO Latin America is riding the wave of increased participation and rapid growth after having 257 participants from 21 counties in the Region attend the Roadmap Forum which was held in May this year. Maria de la Zabala (Pachi), WWO Regional Ambassador for Latin America, is astounded by the growth in the region in the last two years. 

“In 2023 we decided to host a small Latin American regional gathering in Argentina,” she said. “It was a great connection point for all of us who had dreams to help end orphanhood and help children to live in families. I think no one at that gathering really knew how much God was going to do and how quickly.” 

Later that year in Panama, the WWO team decided to try something new. They scheduled a WWO Round Table the day before LAMb International’s trauma training was going to be held. Pachi and Hazel Cedeno, another WWO Regional Ambassador for Latin America, and Director for Casa Viva, helped Ruby and Lynn Johnston, LAMb International, train social workers, church leaders, government, and non-governmental leaders. They also became certified master trainers so they and other leaders could train others in their spheres of influence throughout the Region. 

“Holding the Round Table before the trauma training proved to be so successful, we adopted that model in 2024 overall and were able to hold both in Mexico,” said Pachi. “We started working more closely with other organizations and churches in Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, and Argentina.  

But this year, 2025, we have experienced what feels like an explosion in interest and demand for collaboration and training in Latin America. We are now finding ways to work more closely to see children in families in 14 countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and even some Spanish speaking representatives in Miami.   

We can already see the fruit from some of our initiatives last year,” she said. “Our Round Table and initial trauma training we held in Mexico last year, led to Mexico hosting a Forum in the state of Vera Cruz this year and expanding the number of locations and organizations taking part in the WWO movement there." 

Ruby and Pachi will be visiting Mexico again this year to do the second part of the trauma training and to extend the training to other parts of Mexico as well. Training was successfully completed in August in Argentina, with Chile and Ecuador slated to be trained in the next six months. 

In addition to the expansion of training locations in Mexico, WWO LATAM was recently endorsed by the Evangelical Alliance in Argentina which opens many new possibilities for training across churches in Argentina.  

“We are really excited about the partnership and possibilities to train more church leaders in Argentina and have already seen an increase in the number of families who are willing to adopt. We appreciate the work the Evangelical Alliance does and value this chance to work together to see more children in loving and safe families.”  

Listen to why Pachi feels Round Tables are so important: