This year, Chile joins 16 other nations in honoring pregnant mothers and their unborn children.

by CNA/EWTN NEWS 03/25/2014

SANTIAGO, Chile — For the first time this year in Chile, March 25 is officially being celebrated as the “Day of the Unborn Child,” recognizing the need to protect and care for expectant mothers and their children.

As part of the celebration which deliberately coincides with the Annunciation, the foundation Chile Unido and the Santiago subway system will hand out more than 3,000 white roses to pregnant women as a symbol of the purity of their unborn children.

The purpose of the initiative is to honor pregnant women and to raise awareness about the importance of caring for and protecting expectant mothers.

The flowers will be handed out March 25 at the Baquedano subway station in Santiago from 10am to 1pm. Volunteers from the foundation, as well as mothers who have been helped by Chile Unido, will help distribute the roses.

Veronica Hoffmann, the executive director of Chile Unido, said the foundation “has been working for 15 years to strengthen the bonds between mother and child by welcoming and helping pregnant women who are in vulnerable situations.”

The foundation helps mothers in need until their children celebrate their first birthdays, and its work has shed light on the need to ensure healthy births for babies and to promote measures to care for and support pregnant women in their new role as mothers, Hoffman said.

The Day of the Unborn Child was first made a holiday in El Salvador in 1993 and later celebrated in Argentina, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Peru, Paraguay, Slovakia, Austria, Mexico, Spain, Uruguay, Brazil and Cuba.