Help Brighten the Lives of Children in Poverty

Community Action Alliance's (CAA) Birthday Buddies program, created and supported by CAA members and friends, is designed to help brighten the lives of the children at San Ramon’s home for orphaned/abandoned children, the Hogarcito. While the twenty children, ages 1-12, who live at the Hogarcito are well-loved and well-cared for by the staff, the budget the organization receives from the government is only enough to cover basic needs. Consequently, birthday gifts and celebrations for the children are out of reach. While gifts and parties are certainly not the sole determinant of a child’s happiness or self-esteem, being made to feel special, particularly on one’s birthday, does make a child feel important and cared for. And because of the Birthday Buddies program, each child at the Hogarcito gets to feel extra special and important when their birthday comes around.

As part of the Birthday Buddies program, each child’s birthday celebration includes a birthday cake donated by a local bakery, a birthday banner, balloons, plates, napkins, candles, a bag with candy and stickers for each child at the party, juice, ice cream, and a present especially chosen for the birthday child. As the Hogarcito director told us, birthday celebrations are the highlight of each month and definitely put big smiles on the faces of all the children …and the staff as well!

The cost of the present and the birthday celebration for one child is 20,000 colones or approximately $30-$35 US. Many of our CAA members honor their own birthday or that of someone they care about with a donation to Birthday Buddies. One of our members is even more creative - in lieu of giving birthday gifts to her own 3 grandchildren who receive lots of gifts, she tells them she is making a donation in their honor to the Birthday Buddies program. She then sends them a picture of the child receiving their birthday gift so her grandchildren can see the smiles their birthdays have helped to create. What a wonderful way to help our own children appreciate the value of doing for others!

The children and the staff at Hogarcito are grateful to the many CAA members and friends who have powered up those sweet smiles with their Birthday Buddies donations. If you would like to keep those smiles coming, we welcome your donation at Brighten the Lives of Children www.globalgiving.org/57142. Many thanks for your help!