Play Center for 82 children with cancer in Mexico

After almost a whole year of battling through a pandemic, christmas was there to make up for the loss and the hard times, but the pandemic was not over.

Our team worked so hard last year to make sure that the spaces where the kids and their families hang out at the hospitals were safe and free of any danger, by keeping the spaces in the clinic sanitized we assured a safe spacewhere the kids could scape their illness and play.

With christmas getting closer and closer, we started wondering how were we gonna do our annual celebration without any risks of the kids getting sick. Every year we take gifts from the community, families and department stores, and we bring volunteers from local schools to meet the ill children and spend some quality time with them  before christmas. We always invite Santa to come say hi to them, and they are always so happy to see him. This year, bringing people from outside could put our children in danger.

As usual, we collected the gifts donated from the store and some families, and invited Santa to come along. He was our only guest this year, but the children were as happy as they always are when they see him walking in with his big red coat holding a big bag of christmas gift for them.

It was hard not to get emotional right there, seeing these kids going through this horrible disease, in the middle of a horrible pandemic and there they  were smiling at Santa and telling him their wishes.

Outside of that room there's a city where people dying alone during the holidays from a horrible virus, but inside that room at that very moment there was only joy and the magic of Santa was real. 

These last three months have been really crazy at the hospital. The pandemic has affected the way the kids take their treatment and do their regulars visits, but that has not stopped us from making sure they enjoy their time there as much as they can.

With this playcenter, we have always provided the kids with a safe space where they can learn, play and do things that kids do, It's really important for them to take a time off to forget about needles, painful medicines, and sad times. So for us it's really important thatthey don't lose that and continue to play and learn even during the pandemic. We are grateful for the fact that none of the kids or staff in the area have tested positve to Covid-19.

We continue to donate masks, sanitizer,and everything they need to keep the clinic clean and safe. Also, the doctors and nurses received special gowns and equipment, they need them to stay safe from the virus. Also, we are doing a thing the kids love, where they get to take their favorite toy, or game home and keep it for a week. after a week, when they return to the hospital, they can trade it in for a another one. 

We can't forget that Cancer really is hard thing to go through, these kids are supposed to be going to school, having fun with their friends, pretending to be superheroes, or princesses, or austranauts. For a kid, imagination is the most important thing, and playing is their way of learning. We have to make sure that they don't lose that, plus a healthy mind is a lot more likely to surivive this disease, so for us, its important to make sure these children's minds are as healthy as posible. 

Thank you all for your support, We are facing a lot of challenges,but we stand strong and grateful with everyone!