144 Children say thank you

Happy Children

Two suitcases each weighing fifty pounds, were carried to the coastal area of Ecuador on December 2nd by Mike, a friend and volunteer travelling to another part of the country to provide services for the next three months.

Pedro, a local volunteer of CCI travelled with his brother from Naranjal to meet the flight scheduled to arrive in Guayaquil at 2:00 AM. He was asked to drop along the way back to Naranjal one suitcase in a town where we had arranged for another volunteeer to be on alert between 3:00-3:30 AM to meet him to retrieve one of the bags with donations, and then for him to plan, sort,  pack, and deliver on that Friday the second bag with gifts to 144 elementary school age children.

On Friday, Pedro invited his brother Javier for the very first time to accompany him and experience the volunteer work of CCI, they visited escuelita Jose Antonio Gonzalez of Hacienda Secadal, and felt joy in seeing the happiness of the children as they received a piece of clothing, a tooth brush, a tube of toothpaste, pen, pencil, or a simple small toy.

A toy for a child

Pedro has been volunteering with CCI for seven years, last Spring he had the opportunity of spending a total of three weeks in Indiana, Chicago and Atlanta where he received leadership development training and English language emersion by visiting local schools and speaking english only with host families.

Thank you, Ruby, Marilyn, Tobby, Mary, Jonathan, Zully, who gave to fill these bags; Mike, Pedro and Javier who made delivery possible and the teachers who permitted a visit to the school; the children most of all for that beautiful smile.

As Mr. Manuel Jimenez, director of the school said “…que con ese granito de arena contribuyen a que se forme una gran montaña de esperanza por un mundo mejor para ellos”. Translated as “…that with that grain of sand you are contributing to the creation of a big mountain of hope of a better world for them.”