Looking forward to Christmas and the end of the Bolivian school year, we would like to plan ahead for our in-person Christmas Party this year. With the pandemic mainly behind us, the students are enthusiastic and surging ahead, as we have seen with the large numbers of students who won bonuses for their very good grades this year. With our Christmas Baskets we would like to bring smiles to their faces and share some holiday cheer with our students who have made a tremendous effort all year.
Malnutrition remains a major health concern in Bolivia, so besides meeting basic food needs, the Christmas Baskets will bring cheer and joy during the holiday season as this special Christmas bread, or Paneton as it is called in Bolivia, served with hot chocolate is a family tradition at Christmas time, a time for people to come together and share goodwill. We want to spread cheer in our students and their families and give them a boost to begin 2023.
With the charitable donations we will be able to purchase the items necessary for 115 students. Each Christmas Basket will contain a 750 gm Paneton, a 120 gm bag of powdered milk, one 180 gm bag of cocoa powder for making hot chocolate, and one 388 gm box of cookies. As well, each of the 30 children 13 years of age and under will receive a Christmas gift worth $4.00. The Christmas Baskets will be distributed to the students and children at our end-of-year Christmas party on December 11th.
Throughout the year, Helping Hands provides monthly supplementary food baskets for 24 of our most needy families where we stress vegetables, fruits and high protein foods to improve the nutrition of our students. At the Christmas party we would like to provide every student with a Christmas Basket to celebrate the season and bring joy and encouragement to our hard working students.
