December 13th, 2018

In the spirit of this holiday season, I would like to share with all of you the letter I wrote to Santa Claus this year.

Dear Santa …

What’s wrong with you?

I am not sure you remember me, but I am that child who never got the gifts he asked for. Every year, I felt as if my letters got rejected. Meanwhile, you fulfilled my sister’s wish who requested a doll for her and a doll for me. She was obviously the smart one … since I would not play with it, she ended up getting that one too.

Anyway, the past is the past and I have forgiven you. Today I am writing for another reason. It’s not even for me. I hope this time you will listen.

Dear Santa …

Why do you keep delivering expensive toys to children who can have anything they wish? There is nothing wrong with that, but for one year, why don’t you take the time to visit children who live on the streets and don’t even know how to write you a letter because they can’t go to school?

Why don’t you come with me to visit our programs in Ethiopia? You will meet girls like Haymanot who must walk for two hours barefoot to go to school. She doesn’t have your cozy sleigh and magic reindeer. By the time she gets back home, if she is not abducted or attacked by hyenas along the way, it’s too dark to do her homework because there is no electricity in her house. If not for A Chance In Life, she would drop out of school to stay home and help her parents.

Why don’t you come with me on a twenty-hour trip to India, followed by an eleven-hour car ride to the most remote tribal areas of Kerala where boys and girls live in the forest with no running water, sanitation services, schools or clinics. If it weren’t for A Chance In Life, they would end up in the fields, working hard all day with their family with no chance of getting an education.

Dear Santa ...

Come with me to Peru in Nuevo Horizonte, where hundreds of desperate families are forced to leave their arid lands to find better luck in the outskirts of major cities... You will see houses made of scrap materials built on rocky hills. The children there don’t have schools, medical care or enough food. They play on dusty roads with abandoned tires. For one year, stop only producing toys for kids who have everything and join A Chance In Life to give these children a hot meal, clean water and most importantly a chance in life.

Dear Santa …

Instead of flying back and forth from the North Pole to deliver yet another video game, use your sleigh to save children who flee war, violence, and abuse in Africa to look for a better future in Italy by crossing the sea on rundown boats. A Chance In Life will be there to welcome those who survive the journey across the Mediterranean Sea and will restore their hope at Boys’ and Girls’ Towns in Rome and Civitavecchia.

Dear Santa …

You should know that there are almost 2 billion children under the age of 15 on Mother Earth. More than half of them live in poverty. Twenty-two thousand children die every day due to poverty; 15 children every minute. Since I started writing my letter, 60 have already died.

Will you join me in changing that?

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A Chance In Life may not have a fancy sleigh or hundreds of magical elves, but we have real people willing to make a real difference. Thanks to our donors, we have been able to help over 2,500 children around the world attend school, fulfill their basic needs, and grow as young leaders this past year.

This giving season, we ask you to join us in providing a chance in life to these children in 2019. Click on the button below to see how you can make a difference, this season and every season!  

Thank you for always being there for our children.

Yours truly,
Gabriele

​P.S.  I forgive Santa for that doll … but does anyone know his return policy?