They wait patiently to be attended to to collect the gifts that their children will open on Three Kings Day. The wait is not in a department store, nor in a toy store, but at the doors of the NGO Sonrisas Canarias, which, for yet another year, has already begun to deliver the toys it has collected throughout the month of December for the most families of disadvantaged. By prior appointment, families come to Valleseco to receive the lot of toys that, depending on the age of their children, they will receive, and that Their Majesties of the East have left in the entity to be delivered to their legitimate owners who are not others than the smallest of the house.
The campaign that the toy collection NGO launches each year exceeds the thousand minors cared for each year. In this 2022 it will not be different. According to the entity’s figures, some 600 families have signed up to collect toys, which means serving more than 1,300 boys and girls from different municipalities on the island. In total, Sonrisas Canarias will distribute just over 5,000 toys.
As its president, Luis Febles, explains, “the volunteers, turned into royal pages for a few days, have already begun delivering toys to the boys and girls so that they can enjoy the Three Kings Day like any other minor”. Febles admits that “this year and because the economic situation has not improved since the COVID-19 pandemic began, it is intended to help more than 600 families, or just over 1,300 children, as well as users of the NGOs that have come regularly to collect their food during 2021 and that have been derived from social services ”.
For Febles, “once again, the smile of the little ones is our reward”, and it is that the entity has worked hard to collect donations from different companies, schools and individuals so that on January 6 at no family lacks a toy for the little ones.
As every year, the toys are delivered inside a black bag so that no one knows what each family carries, and at the time of delivery a number is called, which has been previously assigned, so that no one is identified by name. .
Sonrisas Canarias has also worked to lend a hand to those affected by the eruption of the La Palma volcano, to whom they have sent the first wallet cards so that they can buy what they need in small shops, thus covering the needs of the families and helping the continuity of merchants. In addition, more than 4,000 kilos of merchandise were sent to them, including non-perishable food, animal products, personal hygiene products, or diapers and masks. It is also working so that donations arriving from the Peninsula can be managed through the NGO.
Attentions
Sonrisas Canarias served 2,595 families last year, representing more than 12,000 people, 11% less than those served in 2020, when the figure of 14,000 users was exceeded, but it is still 28% more than the people it served before of the crisis. Of that total number, about 800 cases were treated as an emergency referral.
By municipalities, La Laguna and Tacoronte continue to be the ones that refer the most users to Sonrisas Canarias, with more than 800 families each, followed by Santa Cruz, with just over 400.
The forecasts of the entity directed by Luis Febles for this 2022 are not at all promising, mainly due to the persistence of the pandemic, for which they estimate that the next six months of 2022 will continue to be “very harsh.”
The NGO asks users to update the renewal of referrals from the different municipalities to verify that they continue to be at risk.
