Child sponsorship letter from Arica, Chile

An example child sponsorship letter from Arica, Chile:

Dear Sponsors,

After the earthquake of 8.8 magnitude in Richter scale affected our country at the end of February, you are certainly curious about the latest news from our SOS Children’s Village Arica.

Thanks to the big geographical distance from the epicentre, in Arica we did not note this quake. But for five regions in the centre and south of our country the awakening to February 27 at 3:35 o’clock was abrupt when the Earth showed its whole power during three endless minutes.  We wanted to help and express our solidarity with those affected people in the south, so we started in the following days a solidarity campaign in our Village and collected food and hygienic articles for them. In addition, a special mass was held to strengthen us spiritually.

The SOS organization was one of the first who offered help to the community. Our Family Strengthening Programme turned to emergency programme and co-workers from all villages in the country went to Concepción and helped where they were needed. Our organization sheltered, fed and entertained children until 10 years and a team of psychologist offered them emotional support. The purpose was to give them recreational activities and entertainment in a protected environment, where they could play, learn and express their feelings of fear, sadness and confusion. These spaces of daily care allowed their parents or caregivers to collect food and water, rebuilt their homes or find new activities and obtain incomes.

During the first six months of this year we offered a home to four new children aged 8 to 14 years, in the meantime they get slowly accustomed to their families. At present, 125 children and youths live in our Village. After a successful family approaching process, ten children could return to their biological family and are very happy about the reunification.

Every year in February, Arica fills with folklore and colours. A festival, called ‘With the power of the Sun’, is held in this time. Last one was its ninth version and as always our children expected it with much joy because they love watching dances from the Chilean North and performances of our neighbours: folklore groups from Peru and Bolivia are every year present. And of course, they enjoy all the colourful costumes and talk about the best dancers.

Our children are motivated by all kinds of activities: cultural, sport or religious ones. We seek ways and organizations that offer possibilities for an active participation. We are lucky, several universities, among other instances, cooperate with us. Thus, 25 children had an unforgettable experience this year. The sky in our North is considered one of the cleanest in the whole world, so there are several observatories here and many foreign astronomers use to come to work to Chile. The Tarapaca University organised for the mentioned group of children an astronomy workshop directly in the desert. The children watched fascinated the starry sky and learned about constellations and some planets with the help of highly specialized telescopes.

All this work would not be possible without the permanent support of our SOS mothers. We do not only love them but also reward them for their long work with us. And we offer them training courses.

Dear sponsors, dear friends.

This is the opportunity to thank you again for your support and help that can be reflected in our work and guarantee our children a better future. Our Thanks to you all!

Best regards,