Christmas is known as a time for giving and we all pride ourselves for donating those €5 or more to L-Istrina come Boxing Day. What is interesting, however, is how we may be comfortable with being charitable during the holiday season but somehow forget to be so in our day-to-day lives.

Sonia and André Camilleri, a Maltese couple who travelled to Peru last summer to assist missionaries in their parish work on the outskirts of Arequipa, remind us that the act of giving should not be limited to any particular season or to a quick phone call for all that matter.

It all started last January when the couple was invited to join a team planning to visit Peru in summer, to assist missionaries from the Missionary Society of St Paul working in that area. They immediately accepted to join.

The six months prior to departure involved preparatory work that was quite meticulous but an excellent exercise in team-building, according to the couple.

They admit that to work day in, day out, in the mountainous and dusty environment of their parishes, seeking to help very needy families and individuals who have no possessions whatsoever, requires great commitment and an even greater faith. However, the dedication, courage and resilience of Fr Giovann Cefai and his team of priests was remarkable and an inspiration to all the team and the hundreds of Peruvian parishioners.

The 15 team members were joined in Peru by Patricia, a Maltese missionary working in Oregon, and an American from Oregon, Samantha, who was the youngest team member at 18. The accommodation was kindly provided by the Buenos Aires parish, which is located next door to the church run by Fr Giovann.

André had read a description of Peru as‘the beggar on a golden stool’and during their stay he could understand what this expression meant

With the expert help of the staff in the five parishes, the volunteers visited scores of some of the most needy families in the region. They sought to identify the basic needs that were lacking in their homes.

Some families were literally living on borrowed ground, and so they provided them with prefabricated wooden housing.

Others were clearly suffering from severe malnutrition or medical conditions such as asthma or seizures, but could not afford an adequate diet or medical treatment and could not receive free treatment under the Seguro Integral de Salud (SIS), the Peruvian health system, as they had a mortgage or some other bank loan. The team arranged for medical treatment to be provided at the clinic managed by the parishes.

Sonia joins little girls in a game.

The couple describes how living at 2,500 metres above sea level and in the winter of the southern hemisphere affected members of the team in different ways, including shortness of breath due to scarcer oxygen.

Coping with the impact on one’s bodies, although discomforting at times, was probably much easier than coming to terms with the living conditions of the persons whom they met on a daily basis.

André had read a description of Peru as “the beggar on a golden stool” and during their stay he could understand what this expression meant. People lived in ramshackle housing, sometimes made of corrugated iron and cardboard, with dust flooring, a hole for toilet facilities and very little food. There is no water system in the area and families have a ration of water to collect from a tap or via a daily truck delivery.

Sonia and André claim meeting these families and individuals with little or no possessions, living in volcanic dust, with no water or electric facilities, yet surrounded by the imposing and snow-topped Misti volcano and mountains, was surreal. And yet their positive outlook on life and their optimism verged on the incredible.

An image that stuck with them is that of a mother in her 70s who trudged for two hours every day to work in the field and was paid with garlic and other produce which she could then sell. When asked what she required, she pointed at her 35-year old son who suffers from seizures. All she wanted was to afford an MRI scan for him.

Sonia and André (left) with two other volunteers, Louis Scicluna and Caroline Borg, posing for a photo with a Peruvian family.

In the last week before leaving Arequipa, the team distributed containers filled with warm clothing, medicines, quilts, mattresses, baby clothes, toiletries and food, all of which were generously donated by the Maltese.

The joy and gratitude of the Peruvians is perhaps unimaginable for those of us living in what we deem ‘normal’ conditions. The families happily welcomed all that was offered to them and were very grateful for the love and warmth the volunteers distributed during their stay in Peru.

Sonia and André returned home feeling like they had made a difference – which in fact they had.

Let this be a lesson to all of us in this festive season: the act of giving goes far beyond the comfort of our homes and far beyond the borders of a semi-cold Maltese December.