Giving Hearts in the Most Unlikely of Places

Each year the Peruvian Cancer Foundation holds a campaign to raise money for children with cancer; but over the last three years fewer and fewer people were interested in donating. In a rare move, the Peruvian Cancer Foundation went to the most unlikely of places to ask for donations – the Castro Castro Penitentiary – one of the most dangerous prisons in Peru. The idea was to launch the campaign amongst prisoners, many jailed for serious offenses, to see if they could get at least one prisoner to give and hopefully inspire others outside of the prison walls.  
After viewing a video of kids with cancer asking for help, the prisoners were given five days to see if they could collect any money to donate.
What happened after that was phenomenal.
The prisoners were so moved by the cause that they collected over 52 full donation boxes, 382 homemade gifts and 223 letters of hope to kids with cancer. The empathy and action of the prisoners quickly caught the attention of the media and the news spread rapidly – eventually culminating in the most successful Peruvian Cancer Foundation campaign to date.  
But the real message has less to do with money and is best summed up by Cavero, a man sentenced to 18 years in prison, “What started helping the kids, ended up helping all of us. Because we realized that we are all humans.”