Hot Chocolate and Fruit Cake, a Peruvian Tradition

Finding ways to responsibly spend donations isn't the easiest to do, especially when you are in a new place. What has been important to Gonzalo and me is that the recipients of the aid are working. Life is not easy here; it's not fair either, is it ever?

Close to where we live, there is a public school. To be quite honest, I didn't even realize it was a school; by merely looking at the facade you can't tell. The school has no electricity or running water. It is a primary school with three teachers, the principle serves as one of the teachers and the children are grouped into classes with several grade levels.

I was talking with a friend who wanted to do a Christmas charity for children and this school came to mind. We went to the school and talked to the Principle, we got a list of all the children and set a date. We bought a Christmas gift for each child, plenty of Italian style fruitcake (Paneton), and supplies to make hot chocolate. We recruited two more friends to help with the details, including buying the gifts and wrapping them. We used the donations for the gifts, fruitcake, and hot chocolate.

We (the moms) contributed a show to make the event livelier. The show facilitator had the children dancing and playing all sorts of games. The event raised the spirits of the children; they were so happy and excited. We (who organized) felt truly blessed to be the "distributors" of goodwill and the donations.

Click on the following images to enlarge them.