DECEMBER 2015 NEWSLETTER
December was the last month of the school year. We had some special events and visits during the month, whilst of course the children have been looking forward to Christmas.
We made lots of Christmas decorations - some for the children to take home for their families, and some to decorate the school. At the beginning of December we put up our Christmas tree in one of the classrooms and by the time we broke up for the holidays it was full of decorations. In early December we had a visit from La Voz Kids (the Colombian version of the TV program The Voice for kids) to film a clip to show their work in the community. The show was looking to support a charity in Santa Marta and selected us, FMA, after we sent in photos and videos of the children. This was a major event within the barrio of Fundadores as they brought an entire film crew along with a police escort. The large crowd of locals outside the school grew throughout the afternoon as they tried to work out what was happening and get on TV. Everyone got even more excited when Colombian music star Pipe Bueno turned up as a surprise for the children. Unsurprisingly, due to their age, the children at the school didn’t recognise who he was so they had to film the scene where he surprised the children several times to get a reaction out of them. Although some of the local teenage girls were very excited to see him.
Pipe Bueno and other stars of the show also painted the outside of the school with the help of the children – this meant two things. Firstly, that the school now looks much better from the outside. This could help to attract more children to the school. And secondly, that the large supply of paint meant that the kids got so excited that most of the paint ended up all over them. There were paintbrushes, but most of the children opted to use their arms to do the painting. Most importantly they all had a really fun day and for that day they were the stars of the show. Their friends outside certainly looked jealous. All the kids left school with gifts from the program including new headphones and drinks. The following week the clip of the school was shown on Colombian TV. It was great to see our small grassroots charity on national television. We were very fortunate to receive a large amount of funding from La Voz Kids, and we are currently planning what we will spend the money on. Just before we broke up for the Christmas holidays we held a Christmas party at the school. We played pin the nose on the reindeer, made reindeer hats and played lots of other Christmas themed games. We were also very fortunate to have someone from another foundation come into the school who was dressed up as Mama Noel (Mother Christmas). She had kindly brought presents for all the children. They were all very excited to unwrap their new gifts.
A few days before Christmas we were very lucky to have one of the hostels in Santa Marta, La Brisa Loca, fund a party for the children. They provided gifts and food for all the children. We also had dancing, games (including a piñata) and a quick trip to the beach. As always, the kids loved seeing the beach! They really enjoyed their trip to the centre of town and we are very grateful to La Brisa Loca for funding the party.
We are now on our Christmas holidays, but will the school will be reopening again in mid-January. In the meantime the volunteers and everyone else involved with the charity will be working hard to plan another successful year for FMA. Volunteer updates: We’d like to welcome Terry (United States) to FMA who will be with us for at least the next month. Thank for all your help so far! Although Eric (also United States) and Lisa (England) couldn’t stay for long, we really appreciated all your help in December. A big welcome to Suparni (Germany) who joined us for the last couple of days of the year!
