Malis­sa Lara

Every Christ­mas, the chil­dren at Casa de Cora­zon's or­phan­age in San­gre Grande give away some of their gifts to oth­er less for­tu­nate chil­dren. Though some of them have been aban­doned by their par­ents they still find time to vis­it oth­er fam­i­lies on Christ­mas Eve to bring some joy. Their sit­u­a­tion may be dif­fer­ent from the cel­e­bra­tions, fam­i­ly gath­er­ings and abun­dance of gift-giv­ing that goes on dur­ing this sea­son, but they main­tain a joy and the re­al sig­nif­i­cance of this time.

While at a Sev­enth-Day Ad­ven­tist home, the chil­dren who car­ry on wor­ship and de­vo­tions, lis­ten to the sto­ry of the birth of Je­sus Christ every Christ­mas Day. Then, a fam­i­ly makes break­fast for them. En­sur­ing they feel loved, the chil­dren usu­al­ly get a jump start on Christ­mas and are nor­mal­ly the par­tic­i­pants at Christ­mas par­ties...weeks be­fore Christ­mas Day. As re­cent­ly as last week, San­gre Grande casi­no East­lime host­ed a Christ­mas treat for them where they all re­ceived presents and a snack bag from San­ta. To­geth­er, they all sang Christ­mas car­ols. Their kind­ness to­ward oth­ers is a con­trast to the crime brought on by many young peo­ple but it's some­thing they trea­sure and look for­ward to do­ing every year.

In fact, su­per­vi­sor of Casa de Cora­zon, Car­ol Kro­n­berg said, "When some­body new comes in they are very wel­com­ing. They are very nice chil­dren." There are 19 chil­dren liv­ing at the home at present, rang­ing from three to 16 years of age who not on­ly have been aban­doned but who live there be­cause their par­ents are drug ad­dicts. How­ev­er, some of the chil­dren's par­ents try to vis­it while oth­ers do not take up the of­fer. For some of the chil­dren the or­phan­age is the on­ly home they have ever known, so they are ap­pre­cia­tive that they re­ceive help. In op­er­a­tion since 1991, the home func­tions on do­na­tions from both pri­vate and pub­lic donors.