Three Kings deliver gifts to migrant children

An estimated 100 migrant boys and girls received gifts for the Three Kings Day celebration at La Casita in Arima on Friday.

Andreina Briceño Brown, director of La Casita, said the children were selected based on to "their conditions of vulnerability."

“It is the fourth consecutive year La Casita has delivered gifts for the Three Kings Day,” said Briceño Brown.

Most of the children were from Sangre Grande, Tacarigua, Arouca, Arima and even from San Fernando where they travelled from to receive their gifts.

However, Briceño Brown said this year she received the least support from public and private organisations.

“Unfortunately the increase in costs and the decrease in support led us to deliver half of the 200 gifts we distributed in 2022 this year,” she said.

Briceño Brown said there are friends from La Casita who are always there to support them. “They handed out some gifts and we were able to organise the activity in four days,” she said.

Several small entrepreneurs also gave their support with food.

“We had musical presentations by Mini and Mikey Mouse, Frozen, La Burriquita, La Campanera among other traditional activities from Venezuela our children did not know about and that they enjoyed a bit of their country,” she said.

The children also danced to local music to introduce them to Trinidadian culture.

“It was three or four hours of educational and recreational sharing rather than toy handout,” she said.

The three kings were represented by two Trinidadian friends from La Casita and a Venezuelan who dressed as Melchor, Gaspar and Balthazar.

“It is a tradition we adopt as a society and that we continue to promote. We explain to the children what the epiphany is with stories and modest gifts, but that serves to cheer up these migrant children a bit,” said Briceño Brown.

She said she hopes the next year the support will be greater and be able to include many more children.

Three Kings Day, or Epiphany, is a celebration in many Latin American countries of when the three wise men first met the infant Jesus Christ, and is observed on January 6.