Students of the University of Chile Medical School invite HSI participants to join them in cheering up children who are hospital-bound. Magic tricks, face painting and balloon animals brighten the atmosphere for children in Santiago’s public hospitals.

Magia por una Sonrisa student experience:

“The medical students were incredibly cheerful and friendly. They came prepared with cards, t-shirts with the logo, coloring book pictures, materials for face painting, and globos (balloons) to make balloon animals. They've gotten great with the balloon designs, and they made everything from motorcycles to octopi! We went to the pediatric neurosurgery ward of the Salvador Hospital, which is a public hospital. The kids really needed cheering up; they all had shaved heads, head bandages, and so many IVs and other tubes sprouting from their bodies that they weren't even supposed to sit up in bed. But they brightened up when the charismatic Pipe (short for Felipe) and Pablo started their magic show, and laughed at the tricks. One six-year-old, who was also named Felipe, was crying because he didn't want an oxygen supplement put in his nostrils, and I was trying to calm him down by helping him color in a Transformers picture, when Pipe came around and called him his "name twin" and made things appear out of his ears. I had learned how to make balloon animals at Harvard from Ilan over spring break, so I got to give some away to the kids. I was happy to be able to do something even without medical knowledge.” –Abby Schiff, HSI ’09 participant