As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving and thank God that we have enough to eat and enough resources to rely on, we should not lose sight of the fact that hundreds of millions of people—including about 155 million children worldwide—do not get enough to eat.
Sister Esperanza works with children and their parents who are impacted by poverty and hunger, or by an environment of abuse or neglect. “In my years of experience as a Social development practitioner,” she says, “Many children in Peru go hungry or suffer from malnutrition. Others are neglected, either deliberately or because the adults must leave them alone at home in order to work. The pandemic has made the situation much worse, as many children can’t go to the schools that they relied on not only for education, but for a daily meal.”
YOUR Thanksgiving donation will help Sister Esperanza deliver food to the hungry in Peru: (Essential food packs: lentils, rice, fresh vegetables, oatmeal, milk, sugar, cooking oil, shampoo and soap)
Among Sister Esperanza’s biggest priorities right now is helping children in poor and rural areas get access to nutritious food, and the educational resources they need in order to have a chance at bettering their lives and those of their families and communities.
“Most of the families only make income through selling food they make or items they craft, the pandemic has ruined this. Most families can only afford to rent just a single small room as a home. I recently visited a family living in a single room, there were 9 family members living in this tiny room in very poor conditions, the roof is falling apart,” Sister Esperanza says.
The good news is that you can make a difference right now, and become a partner of Sister Esperanza and her colleagues as they make God’s love visible, and make hope visible, to the children of Peru.
Your Thanksgiving gift will help Sister provide food and the supplies she mentioned, and keep up her work. It makes such a difference for children who might otherwise be left with hopeless lives and dark futures, if any.