It’s time to start planning for Chocolatadas

Every year we get many requests from the villages we visit to sponsor a chocolatada. It is always disappointing for the villagers and us to have to say no but our time and financial resources are limited. The good news is that we believe/hope that we’ll be able to sponsor two chocolatadas again this year. The two we’ve chosen; Alto Peru and El Carmen are both deserving villages with active parent’s associations and teachers who do their best to provide for their pronoeis.

Karina Chaponan is the teacher at the pronoei Niños Y Su Mundo in Alto Peru. She is well respected and appreciated by parents and kids alike. When we equipped her classroom last June she had 16 students, and said more would come. She now has 21 kids which is about all that the room can hold. We’re shooting for Friday, December 16 to have the chocolatada.

Saida is the teacher at the pronoei Mis Pequenos Angelitos in El Carmen. She has 15 of some of the happiest, brightest students we’ve seen. When we equipped her classroom last June we were impressed with the spirit and appreciativeness of the villagers and kids. There is lots of vitality in this poor village.

Chocolatadas are relatively inexpensive. The basic components are toys, panetone (sweet bread), candy and entertainment. These we try to provide. The villagers provide a meal (usually chicken and rice) and hot chocolate.

Toys are starting to show up on store shelves. Based on what we’ve seen we think we can continue last year’s average cost limit at 20 soles ($5.94 usd) per toy. For the 21 kids at Alto Peru that is $124.74. For the 15 kids at El Carmen $89.10 would cover it.

Panetone costs $40 per box, containing 6 loafs. We need 1 box for each village. Candy is about $36 per school.

For entertainment we hope to try something different this year. A clown goes over well with 5 to 12 year olds, but the younger kids in a pronoei usually get frightened, sometimes cry and refuse to interact with the clown. There are two young women entertainers here in Chiclayo who work well with young kids. They are often contracted for birthday parties and have a good reputation. We haven’t contacted them yet but are told that their fee is $55.

The total cost for Alto Peru, including an estimated transport cost of $50 would be about $305. El Carmen, with 6 less students would be about $275. It’s still early but we hope to start raising the $580 now so we can begin purchasing toys as bargains appear at stores. For example, we’ve already purchased 6 toy trucks marked down from $11.81 to $5.89. That’s a savings of $35.52 for those 6 items.

As always we’re going to need help if we’ve going to pull this off. A donation of just $6.00 will buy a toy. Please visit the Promesa Peru webpage to give the villagers of Alto Peru and El Carmen an event this holiday season that they will long remember. Thank you.