I had visited the home once early on and was very touched by Gil and Chantal's dedication. The home has a lovely feel even though they live in very poor and cramped conditions - the children are cared for as if they are their sons and daughters - in fact Gil and Chantal adopted the first child who was brought in - Karina, who was found in a gutter, battered, blind, deaf, and dumb. Karina is now about 10. Nothing can be done about her being blind, deaf, and dumb, but she's a very affectionate child, and clearly very attached to her parents. There was another little boy I met - Antonio, about 8, and he had been living in the prison with his mother and fell into a pot of boiling soup and has serious burns and psychological problems because of it - my heart went out to him too! These are the kind of children who are brought here - as Gil and Chantal say, they are often the kind of children that nobody else wants to look after.
When my parents said their church wanted to donate some money to a good cause in Ayacucho, I thought of this home, and went to visit again. I then found out that the home currently has serious funding issues, as an NGO in Belgium, where they've been getting 3/4 of their funding from up until now, is going to stop the funding soon, and there's only a slight possibility that they might get 1/4 of their funding from February instead. So when I asked Gil how I could help, he said that they could really do with some basic foodstuffs to keep them going in January, to give them time to find more funding for the future.
So Marisol and I went shopping, and spent 100 pounds on basic foodstuffs, plus a few luxuries for Christmas - and boy, 100 pounds goes a very long way in Peru!!
Marisol coorinates the shopping
We bought:
1 sack rice
1/2 sack sugar
30k 3 kinds of lentils
24 cartons milk
10k noodles
6 bags flour
2 tins cocoa
12 tubes toothpaste
1 large pack of pampers
1 large tub cooking oil
12 bars of soap
12 bars soap for clothes
1 sack oatmeal
4k popcorn
5 panetones
The result!
We had also been round asking various people to donate old clothes, toys, etc., which we split up between this home and the soup kitchen, so we also had a sack of toys, plus a sack of clothes, and an old stove to donate!
This Thursday we made a surprise visit to Los Gorriones with all our donations, and they were incredibly grateful! Unfortunately a lot of the children were at school, and also, it was raining, so I haven't been able to take many photos of the home 'in action', but if I go back before I leave, I'll add some more. Here are a few anyway ...
Packed and ready to go!
The home (half-way down on right) and neighbourhood
The box of panetones for Christmas
Happy customers!
The home's nativity scene
And a BIG THANK YOU to my parents and all the members of Callington Methodist Church who made this happen - it's very much appreciated!!
And as this will probably be my last blog before Christmas, a very Happy Christmas to all of you! Many thanks for all your blog comments and e-mails - it's been lovely to hear from you, as although I'm having a great time here, I know it's a very, very long way away from home, and it's good to know you are out there!
2 comments:
Mum and Dad say
it's been great to see how you have used some of the funding. Those dear little children are going to have a better Christmas and New Year because of your help. We are hoping to get a print out to show the Church people. Happy Christmas ,Hazel, we are missimg you.Love from us.xxxxx.
Ps. Mum has had to do all the stuffings herself here although Mel is going to bring some when they come up!!
From Vicki Gilbert, CCS volunteer Oct 05 to Feb 06.
Hi Hazel,
Marisol kindly sent me the link to your Blog - hope that's OK.
I was moved to tears by the pictures of the children at the prison and at Los Gorriones. I used to look after little Luis on our Friday outings, Los Gorriones was home to two of the children in 'my class' at the Escuela Especial and I did a similar exercise in January, buying mattresses for Los Gorriones with some cash raised by my work-mates back in UK.
Today is Christmas Eve and I have spent much of the past few weeks thinking about my meaningful time in Ayacucho. Christmas has got so ridiculous in UK and I think back to all the wonderful children, adults, fellow volunteers and CCS staff I met during my time in Ayacucho. So watch out, you may leave Ayacucho soon but it will never leave you. I know it will always have a special place in my heart.
Give my love to all the CCS staff. Best wishes to all the volunteers too. Have a great Christmas and New Year and watch out for all those crazy fireworks.
With very best wishes,
Vicki
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