 “Do you want the good news or the bad news first?”
A research study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin states that the answer depends on whether you are the giver or receiver of the bad news. If you are on the receiving end, experiments showed that an overwhelming majority – more than 75 percent – wanted the bad news first. So, I will start with the bad news.
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 Last November, I traveled to the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. Because of A Chance In Life's reputation as an advocate for vulnerable children, I had been invited by local organizations to explore possible partnerships in support of the child victims of ‘narco-trafficantes’.
The trip was emotionally intense as I visited juvenile prisons, rehabilitation centers for teenagers trying to recover from drug addictions, and homes for orphans who had lost their parents to the drug wars. One of the most poignant moments was meeting with the Tarahumara people (or Rarámuri, as they call themselves), a group of indigenous people living in the state of Chihuahua. They are renowned for their long-distance running ability, and have produced some of the best long-distance marathoners in the world. In fact, Rarámuri means "runners on foot" or "those who run fast" in their native language. Get excited, A Chance In Life Family! In collaboration with Equidad para la Infancia (Equity for Children), we are launching a powerful new video series, En Primera Persona (In First Person) to share the stories of marginalized families in Latin America during the pandemic. Enjoy the teaser trailer above, and visit our En Primera Persona page on Friday, June 26, for the premiere of the first En Primera Persona video!  The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it many questions that I needed to answer as a father of four children in New York City. How would my wife and I keep them safe? How would we keep their lives intact during lockdown? (The questions eventually shifted towards how I would keep my sanity intact amid the endless energy of my young children ... but that came later.) I hope you have already seen the messages of gratitude that our youth from Latin America have been sending us. As cases have spiked in their countries, causing the World Health Organization to name Latin America the new epicenter of the pandemic, they have also sent us photos of how they and their families are trying to keep safe. Maintain social distance ... wear a face mask ... stay at home. The families of our children overseas have been asking themselves the same questions I asked myself in New York. How do we keep our children safe and healthy? But in the impoverished communities we serve in Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico and Colombia, they've had to grapple with even more difficult questions. How can I stay at home when we have no money - how will I feed my family? Do I continue working to put food on the table and risk getting my family sick, or do I watch our children go hungry? How can my child keep up with schoolwork when we don't have a computer or smart phone? Luckily, we have the answers. Or rather, you do! A gift from you allows us to continue providing this life-saving aid to our youth, and begin working with our partners overseas to ensure no child loses access to an education in the coming year. To help with this endeavor, a partner foundation has offered to match any donation to our #MonthofMeals campaign given before June 30 - providing TWICE the amount of support and doubling your impact on the lives of children around the world! To say thank you and help you stay safe as well, we'll send an A Chance In Life face mask (photo below) to anyone who gives at the $100 level or above. The families of our youth face increasingly difficult questions about their children's health and education. I hope you will join me today in providing them with resources they need to answer them. Thank you. Gabriele Delmonaco President/Executive Director
 A Chance In Life is so grateful for our partnership with the Caritas Pro Vitae Gradu Charitable Trust, whose support has been instrumental in strengthening our COVID-19 hunger relief efforts. Trustee Ariane Slinger provided us with more insight into the Trust's work and her own role as an entrepreneur and philanthropist.
You can provide emergency food supplies to our youth and their families during this crisis by supporting our Home Together event, which will take place on Tuesday, May 19. This digital feast is approaching fast, so make your gift today!
 As COVID-19 rages across international borders, A Chance In Life launched an immediate response to continue caring for the 3,000 youth we serve in Italy, Ethiopia, India and Latin America. As schools closed around the world, many children were sent home to struggling relatives poorly equipped to care for them. Since mid-March, A Chance In Life has worked to supply these children and their families with enough food supplies to get them through the end of this crisis.
Three weeks into our #MonthofMeals campaign, I have some thoughts to share about the "joys" of working from home with my four children. More importantly, I have a message about A Chance In Life's urgent efforts to ensure the children of our Towns do not go hungry during this crisis. $50 is enough to provide a child with enough food for a month - please join us in this lifesaving work. Grazie a tutti.
 Dear Friend,
It is increasingly clear that the COVID-19 pandemic will be a long and profoundly difficult period for humanity. While the daily news is full of disheartening statistics about worldwide hardship, it is vital in these moments to recall the power and importance of community. Together, we can overcome anything. Here at A Chance In Life, we are seeing the results of our community in action. We called upon you to lend your support to provide 3,000 meals per month to our vulnerable children and their families for the duration of this crisis, and many of you have answered that call. This has allowed our program staff to put together two weeks of emergency food supplies for our young people in Guatemala living with HIV/AIDS, whose compromised immune systems put them at increased risk for serious complications from COVID-19 and other viral infections. Regular, nutritious meals are essential to their survival. Thank you for your crucial support in getting supplies to them quickly and efficiently. But as the crisis endures, so do the needs of our young people everywhere. For those of you who have not yet made a gift, we ask that you give as generously as you can to protect and feed our vulnerable children. A donation of $50 can provide meals to a young person for a month. You can also choose to renew your gift each month automatically, to ensure we can protect our children for the duration of this pandemic. For those of you who have already contributed to our #monthofmeals campaign, we thank you. Can you consider making a second gift as we enter the second month of this crisis? We are proud of A Chance In Life's ability to launch an immediate response to the urgent humanitarian needs of our children, and to already be providing food supplies to affected families in Colombia (see photo above) and India. Thank you for helping make this possible, and being an integral part of our incredible community. Gratefully, Claire W. Gallagher Vice President of Development Our programs around the world are facing an unprecedented challenge of caring for our children after they've been sent home after worldwide school shutdowns. Watch the video message above from our program staff in Cuilapa, Guatemala or read the transcript below for their report on the situation. If you can, please support and share our #MonthofMeals campaign here to make sure the children of our programs around the world have the food they need to make it through this crisis.
As you can see, friends and donors, you just saw the empty facilities of the Home for Girls.
We are especially preoccupied for our girls because their basic needs are covered here at the home, as they come from very needy backgrounds and the services available here are not available in their families or with their caregivers. We are especially worried about the current situation in our country and other countries abroad. We want to let you know that when we handed over our girls to their families or caregivers, it was really difficult. Before our girls left this home, we generously shared with each a bag of food supplies so they can cover the basic needs of nutrition for these days. At the same time, we are ready to provide any kind of support according to their needs during this time while they are away from this home. We also want to let you know that it is up to us to comply with all the government requirements. We have tried to fully comply with the government laws, following carefully the guidelines received: keeping calm, being together, and for us, praying. Thank you for your support, thank you so much for what you have done for us, for our girls and for our boys. As you know, we have public school here for children living in the surroundings. For all the children attending the school, due to the suspension of the academic activities, the school has opened a tutoring program for the children. Because this is not school break time, academic activities are suspended but the schoolteachers have provided the children at home with homework. Many thanks and blessings to you all. |
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