2020 Westfalia Orphanage Christmas party

On Friday 25 December, 2020 Sonrisasenperu hosted our 11th Westfalia Orphanage Christmas party for the 125+ children in the mountains outside of Lima, Peru. Due to the pandemic the orphanage has been in full lockdown since March 2020 to protect the children and staff. Peru has been devastated by the coronavirus and has had the highest death rate per capita in the world with almost 2.5 million cases and over 200,000 deaths so the safety of the children and staff has been the priority. All year we have only been able to send in food and supplies rather than attend in person.

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The kids at Westfalia were affected by the pandemic more than most Peruvian children. Most Peruvian children have access to computers or tablets or even cell phones to attend the online school classes which have been the norm since March 2020 and isn’t due to finish until 2022. The kids at Westfalia don’t have any of that so have had to watch national television for their classes which obviously has zero interaction with teachers. It has put a lot of pressure on the staff too as they are not teachers.

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So we had to send everything into the orphanage rather than attend in person and have a large show, games, etc. So we managed to have the usual traditional turkey lunch with ¨chicha morada¨ which is a traditional purple corn drink from the Peruvian Andean region made by boiling maiz morado (purple corn) and adding other ingredients such as pineapple, cinnamon, sugar and cloves. There was also ¨paneton¨, Peru’s traditional Christmas dessert and of course candies and fun!

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Thank you to everybody who got involved in making this day as fun as possible. The kids loved the break from their normal routine and especially loved the great food. Once we have moved past the pandemic we can go back to presential activities.

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