Every year our family is part of a series of parties that we call Celebrate Christmas. In Colombia, there are tens of thousands of children each year who come from families so poor that they don’t receive Christmas presents. Sometimes they don’t even have a good meal. Christmas is not always a happy time.

In the capital city of Bogota (where we live) there are more than 11 million people, and thousands of those are children who live in quiet desperation. Another area that we try to touch is Quibdo, the capital city of the Choco province in Colombia. If you didn’t know any better, you would think that you were in Africa and not in Colombia. Imagine a jungle city of more than 100,000 people where there are only two traffic lights in the entire community – and those two traffic lights don’t even work! As in other areas of the country, it can be hard for people to find work and the money that they do make is needed to pay for food and clothing. Treats are hard to find.