Submitted by Alexandra DiDonato on the 2013 fall semester program in Buenos Aires, Argentina…
Our group returned once again to volunteer with the foundation De Todos Para Todos, an organization where once a week, children from lower class families gather to play, eat, and learn. This time around was particularly special because on this day the group was holding a mini carnival to celebrate El Día del Niño. The holiday is usually celebrated in August, but these kids had so much fun it made up for the wait!
There was a variety of games that the children could play to win prizes. Each game earned them one ticket, and they needed anywhere from five to fifteen tickets to earn the different prizes.
Something very funny that a lot of children did was they would rip their tickets into smaller pieces, thinking that they could get away with creating more tickets for themselves to make earning prizes easier. Sometime, we cut those children a break and gave them little pieces of candy for their efforts even if they didn’t have exactly the right amount.
The last time we came to help out a few of us got to watch while a group of young girls practiced dancing for a recital they were going to hold. Little did we know at the time that we would be there to see the fruits of their labor!
The girls had a blast dancing and I’m sure the cheers from their enthusiastic audience really made them feel special!
After some hotdogs and treats, the children gathered around for the grand finale of the day, presents! I can only imagine the planning and budgeting that went into this, every single child who was there walked away with a very nice toy that they had requested. I saw children walking out of there with new skateboards, play kitchen sets, dolls, easy bake ovens, books, you name it!
A lot of these children come from extremely low income families. To them, something so simple as a fun day at the park and some shiny new toys really makes a world of difference. What a great organization De Todos Para Todos is, I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to help out with their cause. Looking forward to spending more time with these children next month!