This year, in no small way because of YOU, we were able to provide thousands of children with vitamin A supplements, multiple vitamins, and an anti-parasite medicine known as Albendazole, which is recommended by the World Health Organization to eliminate worms from the childrens’ bodies. Over 94% tested were positive for parasites. We were able to build a few more swing sets in a new remote pueblo just south of Huaraz. The self esteem of the children was boosted and their creativity was enhanced with three new art exhibitions. Catac, Ticapampa and the Cultural Center Museum in Huaraz saw the latest creations and expressions of our talents. The first prize winner in Ticapampa rode away on his new bicycle for his beautiful contribution to the exhibition. Large sheets of plain cardboard are now being used to design and fabricate tables, chairs, closets, doll houses and even airplanes. Because of YOU, hundreds of pairs of warm socks are on the feet of children replacing wet, worn out socks. Toys and games are keeping children occupied who were bored to tears in cold adobe houses. The school materials that YOU have sent to us has been met with deep gratitude. Many of the classes that I visited, I saw children sharing the few existing pencils and pens. Paper was hard to find. Children were playing with Play-Doh the size of your thumbnail. YOU were instrumental to provide them what they needed. Education is the shortest and most economic route out of the impoverishment that enslaves them now.
YOU had provided us with several large boxes of these materials and supplies which makes the ladies in the post office routinely say to me, “Jim, you have another box here for your children.” It is because of YOU that we have grown from fifteen children when we first started this project in 2009 to reaching over two thousand children in 2015. Though we may not get to every group every week, when we do it is a celebration, lots of hugs and tears when we leave. Some of those groups are so remote that we are advised during rainy season that it is dangerous to traverse the narrow muddy pathways with several hundred foot drop offs to get to them. Some groups of children are so remote that no NGO or similar organization attempts to help them, except us. Our “Haz lo Correcto-Do the Right Thing” initiative is making a significant difference in every group. If the values we share can turn a a life around, promote honesty and positive reinforcement in several of the children, we have ignited a spark that can become a flame of hope. We can not know which child we are helping that may become the next Martin Luther King Jr., Steven Jobs, Robert Kennedy or Jimmy Carter. Adversely, we do not know which future Pablo Escobar, Mao Zedong or Dick Cheney we are thwarting.
We have reached thousands out there in the international community with our photojournalism exhibition in e-magazines and with the kind support of Julian Lennon and the White Feather Foundation, we have been able to take the stories and photos of the children and families out of obscurity. We believe that apathy is humanity’s most profound humiliation. We also believe that YOU have helped us melt that apathy by your example of compassion in action. We still have a long way to go. It is disturbing, even distressing, to see so many that have actually visited us and met the children, return to their home countries and develop amnesia. This is why I am so deeply grateful to YOU. It is easy to look the other way, YOU have jumped into our movement and made it possible to continue year after year. I hope this makes YOU feel like the hero that YOU are. It is the definition of a hero.
Just recently, we saw that most children in the newest of pueblos still lacked games and toys to play with. A friend and pizza shop owner named Luigi and I have partnered together to work with the children in developing several board games. The first one, appropriately named “Luigi’s Pizza”, should be completed within a week from the time of this writing. Ideally, our plans are to market these games to develop funding and self sufficiency within the pueblos. I believe the children are brilliant, given the opportunity and materials to prove it. I know they will amaze everyone.
2016 promises to be the best year we have ever seen, built upon the success and victories of 2015 and years past. I can not pretend that we will not also see more disappointments, shrugs of apathy from those who are well able to turn the tide of destitution of these children and occasional vacuous criticisms just to see how we will react. However, I believe that having YOU, your love and support, with your understanding that without YOU, we simply can not continue helping thousands of children in these remote Andes, we can and will reach thousands more.
In our Secsecpampa location, I have written a message on the wall, for the children as well as a constant reminder to me during those darker moments, it simply says;
If you want to see the impossible accomplished, attempt the impossible.
Thank you my friends, heroes, compassionate hearts, for making the impossible, possible. ~~~ Jim Killon.... December 6, 2015
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