Distribute Donated Clothes & Goods in Rural Panama

“Christmas in February!”  That’s how the residents of one community described their experience of receiving donated goods through the Latin American Relief Network, and we are extending their Thanks to you!  During the week of February 8-15, 2015, six volunteers from the US traveled to Panama to distribute the donations from the 40-foot ocean container that was shipped last year.  We had a good turnout of Panamanian volunteers as well, for a total of approximately 20 volunteers each day.

On Sunday, February 8, our volunteers pulled all the boxes out of our storage unit in El Naranjal, Panama and sorted them into four sections so we had a variety of items for the four towns we would be visiting.  Once sorted, the five rental trucks were loaded up with donation boxes which were covered with tarps and strapped down.  The four towns LARN volunteers visited were El Aguacatal de Calobre, Las Barretas, Quije, and La Sabana.  At each town, we were greeted by about 150 to 200 people from infants to the elderly to whom we handed out clothing, toys, and household items.  We also had some larger items such as bicycles, doll houses, and cribs with mattresses, which were given away in free raffle drawings.  The people in all these towns were very grateful for everything they received, showering LARN volunteers with smiles and even a variety of homegrown fruits and vegetables to show their immense gratitude.   

The good thing about distributing donations is that by giving the people these items, it frees up the little bit of money they do have for other necessities such as food.   However, a trip such as this is quite costly for us to undertake after accounting for shipping the goods, import taxes, rental trucks and diesel, and food for our volunteers.  The residents of the communities we visited asked if we would be returning, and although we would love to, we would like to supplement the much-appreciated financial contributions of our private donors with corporate donations and sponsors for any future donation shipments and distribution. If you know of any companies that might be willing to assist, please contact us so that we can reach out to them and work towards completing another round of donation distribution in the future. 

Since we have completed this round of our donation distribution project, we are turning our attention now to other projects, which aim to fulfill our mission of providing Panamanians the opportunities to achieve self-sufficiency.   One way we are working to meet this goal is with our indigenous dress project.  Please visit our website (insert hyperlink) or our Facebook page (insert hyperlink) to learn more about this project and how you can help.  If you would like to follow our progress and continue to receive periodic updates after we close our Donation Distribution Project on GlobalGiving, sign up to receive our newsletter on our website.  Again, thank you for all you did to help make this project a success!