“I didn’t have anything… I couldn’t give them gifts or food for tomorrow.”

Last Christmas Eve, we encountered one of the most heartbreaking situations during our efforts to provide food and gifts to 100 of the most underprivileged families in the Yunguilla Valley through our ‘A Simple Box of Food‘ program.

A mother of three broke into tears as she expressed her gratitude for bringing her family food for their Christmas meal, along with simple gifts of candy and coloring books for her small children.

She shared that her husband had attempted to find work in the United States, but she hadn’t heard from him in days, and his whereabouts were unknown. And she didn’t have food or gifts for the next day.

Later that day, we encountered another single mother of four, engaged in the laborious task of making charcoal to sell. Her children were assisting her in cutting and burning the wood, with her youngest, a 4-year-old, packing the ‘carbon’ into bags.

Despite being covered in soot, she hesitated to shake our hands, embarrassed by her appearance. In response, we requested hugs to assure her that appearances didn’t matter to us.

These are not just stories; they are real people facing genuine struggles. These experiences were just a glimpse of the many encounters we had as we traversed the valley, hoping to bring a sliver of joy to these sweet people on Christmas day.

Last year, we ambitiously expanded our ‘A Simple Box of Food‘ program, setting a goal of $3,500 through GoFundMe, hoping to support 100 families.

The response from people like you left us shocked and humbled, exceeding our goal with a total of over $5,300.

This additional funding allowed us to include extra bags of rice, beans and sugar in the boxes we distributed, along with delivering candy, cookies, coloring books, and pencils for 90 children.

This year, we have set our goal at $5,000, and we can only achieve this through the generosity of people like you. So, I’ll straightforwardly ask:

Will you join us in helping feed some of Ecuador’s poor this holiday season?

What better gift could you give yourself this year?

If you want to learn more about our efforts last year and how the ‘A Simple Box of Food‘ program works, please click on the links above. Feel free to give from your heart.

As a special favor, we ask you to share our cause with your friends and contacts. The more funds we raise this year, the more we can provide to these wonderful people who deserve a well-fed Christmas and the assurance that their children will experience a special day.

Thank you in advance for any support you can offer.