Christmas Campaigns: Criança Mais Feliz Institute benefits hundreds of families in Porto Alegre (RS)

The Criança Mais Feliz Institute is a civil society organization that has already impacted more than ten thousand families in Porto Alegre and the metropolitan region of Rio Grande do Sul. Everything is done through donations and volunteer work. There are five main fundraising campaigns throughout the year and, in December, the traditional end-of-year campaign takes place.

For Christmas, basic baskets, toys, panettone, sweets, as well as hygiene and cleaning products will be distributed. Donations will be delivered to a group of 100 mothers. “This is perhaps the most robust Christmas campaign we have done so far. It is expected that we  impact around 250 children at once… Mothers and children have a great time at the end of the year with the donations”, explains Nara Sonallio, founder and president of the institute.

The gathering of products has been taking place since mid-November. There are 35 donation points, distributed in clinics, offices, markets, beauty salons, and other commercial points in the city. During the Christmas campaign, donations of school supplies are also encouraged, which will be distributed to children at the beginning of the school year, in 2024.

“It’s an important campaign, because in addition to the kits for the end of the year, we are also collecting school supplies. The goal is to provide 500 children with complete school supplies next year. Donations encourage children to study”, says the founder.

Social impact

In action since 2015, the campaigns carried out by the OSC have already collected around 10 million donations, dozens of tons of food and involved more than 100 volunteers. “We are not going to change the world, but we can change the lives of several families around us”, observes Nara.

She remembers that there are not enough public policies to assist families in situations of extreme poverty. “Millions of families are going hungry in Brazil, not just in Porto Alegre. The number of homeless people is increasingly high. No matter the season, I see many women with children sleeping on the streets of the city.”

Because of this, the institute seeks to bring hope wherever it goes: “We want to show children that they have the right to dream, that they can have a better life, become athletes, teachers, etc. Sometimes, one word can turn their little switch”, he argues.

The campaigns

Nara began fundraising campaigns after participating in a voluntary action in 2015. The action took place in a gym in the city, to support homeless families on the islands of Porto Alegre that were completely flooded due to strong rains.

“The families were accommodated at the Tesourinha gymnasium, close to where I lived, and one day I took two bottles of tea and some packets of biscuits to the children. They didn’t let me in, but I found a way in… when I saw that the donations were disorganized, I decided to help. I arrived at 10 am and left at midnight. The next day, I came back again… I ended up staying there for 22 days”, remembers Nara.

At the end of the action, she went with the Army and Civil Defense to take the families back to the islands and was moved by what she saw. “The children were crying because they didn’t want to go home. At the gym, they had five meals a day, baths, toys, people paying attention to them”, she recalls.

After two months, Nara returned to the islands with the Civil Defense. She had organized a toy collection campaign and delivered them to the children at Christmas. Since then, she hasn’t stopped campaigning. It is estimated that around 30 thousand children were impacted, in 100 different communities, with food, layettes, clothes and shoes, toys, school supplies, cleaning supplies, and hygiene products.

Donations and volunteering

The campaigns began systematically in 2016. First, the back-to-school campaign was carried out, then the Easter campaign, followed by the winter campaign, for Children’s Day, and, finally, the Christmas campaign. This dynamic was repeated in the following years, usupporters nominated the project to participate in the program The Wall, by Luciano Huck, in 2021. At that time, Nara worked in advertising, at the same time as she worked as a volunteer in organizing campaigns. She went to the program hoping to raise sponsorship to set up the headquarters.

“We received a lot of donations and, since we didn’t have a headquarters, everything was kept at the volunteers’ homes. So we went to the program to get money to rent a house. We expected the private sector to support us. But after the program, we received hundreds of requests for help, people seeking to receive donations…”, says Nara.

The Criança Mais Feliz campaigns were completed six years ago. Nara then proposed that they take greater action against hunger. The goal was to collect 6 tons of food. At the end of the campaign, there were 15 tons.

“Father Romeu, from the Santo Antônio Pão dos Pobres parish, was a great partner. He opened the doors of the parish to organize everything we collected. It was a huge job, we had volunteers from October to February delivering the donations. In total, we served 2,800 families”, recalls Nara.

Happier Child Institute

After many campaigns, the headquarters of Criança Mais Feliz (Happier Child) Institute was created in early 2023. The space, in addition to allocating donations, also offers socio-educational activities for mothers and children. Activities include after-school classes, lectures on nutrition, and a mothers’ group. “The two and three-year-old children who go there are obese from eating so much biscuits and bread because it is the only food they have access to”, warns the founder.

To maintain the projects, cash donations are expected to be recurring. There is an intense campaign inviting people to participate with monthly fees starting at R$50.00. “We need financial help to maintain the headquarters. It is not possible to live on donations of food and school supplies alone. A basic food basket does not pay for rent, internet, electricity, security…”, says Nara.

Without any support from public or private authorities, the institute therefore depends on partnerships to continue its work. “We are a partner arm of society. We do work that the public authorities should be doing, but cannot do”, concludes the founder.

Want to support this cause?

To find out more information and contribute with donations or volunteer work, visit the Instituto Criança Mais Feliz website or follow their profile on Instagram. It is also possible to make donations directly via PIX: CNPJ 39.680.115/0001-00.