On the 24th of December, in the city of Varginha, Minas Gerais, Brazil, the Missionaries of Peace of Fraternidade – Internacional Humanitarian Federation participated in the distribution of around 600 restored and donated toys. The distribution to poor children of this area is a result of the work being done for many years by a resident of the city, who the missionaries accompany.
Rusilvania Gallo walks carefully inside a room filled with all kinds of toys: cars, stuffed animals, board games, puzzles, plastic ovens, Lego bricks and dolls, all of them which are hand-me-downs. She searches for the missing piece for another toy: a wheel for a small plastic car. This is the routine of this inhabitant of Varginha, a city in the south of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, who for the past 30 years has been restoring used toys and later donating them to the poor children of the city.
This work began under her father’s influence; who used to dress as Santa Claus in the company he worked for and give children the used toys that he fixed himself. The first toys that Ms Gallo restored were picked up in the local scrap yard, but as time went by, she began to receive donations of toys from the community. “It is a work for the whole year, because we receive toys from the community and begin to select them, remove the ones that cannot be fixed and separate the ones that need to be restored and cleaned”, explains Ms Gallo.
After the cleaning, the toys are classified according to the gender and age of the children who will receive them, and later are put into packages of about eight toys each. Some toys stay there for years, waiting for a piece to arrive that will enable it to be fixed. “I have a small car kept here for two Christmases already, because I haven’t found a piece for it yet”, says Ms Gallo. It often happens that one toy’s piece fits another one that was needing it. “You have to be patient, sooner or later a similar one will come to complement it”, she states.
The Missionaries of Peace who visit Ms Gallo’s home usually participate in different tasks. They organize and fix the toys, separate and look for pieces and also make the packages. But the work is not only limited to the toys: when the need arrives, they will help in whatever is necessary. This is what Imer does, a Missionary of Peace of Fraternidade – Internacional Humanitarian Federation, who uses a few tools to try and stop the leaking from the kitchen’s sink. “Whenever we go out to serve we are willing to do anything within our possibilities”, he says.
During the task with the toys, the Missionaries of Peace end up finding things that can help them in the permanent missions of service that the group has in the community of the town of Carmo da Cachoeira. “We noticed that she (Ms Gallo) also keeps a lot of clothes. We are going to borrow a wedding dress that will be worn by a woman from Carmo da Cachoeira, where we attend”, explains the Missionary of Peace Clara.
“We make partnerships with people and organizations that dedicate themselves to service like we do. We participate in the organization of the toys here and then take some of them for donation in Carmo da Cachoeira”, says Imer.
On the 24th of December, Ms Gallo’s house is transformed. The big room, in which the toys were fixed and the packages made, is now filled with gifts. The kids arrive very early and wait in line in front of the house, before the moment of entering the room. Then, all they have to do is choose their gift from among so many toys. Throughout the day, around 600 toys were distributed.
In the neighbor city of Três Pontas, another toy distribution takes 
place. This time, the Missionaries of Peace’s group donated 250 toys and 100 packages of learning material collected by them, and 300 toys donated by Ms Gallo. Everything was given to the Art and Daily Life Project, from the Parish of Christ the Redeemer, which offers courses for about 250 children in that city. The gifts were distributed in schools of Três Pontas.
For the Missionary of Peace Imer, this kind of action with the community is important in this time of the year: “In the end of the year, the kids really expect to receive gifts, and for us it is a joy to see so many happy kids. The families also get very happy, because they wouldn’t have the means to buy such gifts for their children”, he concludes.
