Next year, the International Ladies Benevolent Society will celebrate its 50th anniversary of nonstop, wholehearted, generous help to charitable organizations and people in need in Japan. A continuing, major fundraising event is the annual Christmas Fair. This year's chairwoman for the fair is Angela Bilbao de Infante, wife of Demerrio Infante, ambassador of Chile to Japan. She accepts being called, simply, Angela Infante. In the different countries where she has lived, she is accustomed to international mingling, adjusting and, importantly, contributing to charitable work. Of Japan she said: "I have many friends here, and am very happy living here. I am very pleased to be chairperson for ILBS fair this year."
The fair is to be held at the International School of the Sacred Heart in Hiroo, a fitting venue for Angela. "I went to only one school in my life, and that was the Sacred Heart," she said. Her Sacred Heart was in Vino Del Mar, a famous beach resort with luxurious attractions on the coast of Chile. The youngest of five children in a family originally from the Basque region of Spain, Angela grew up in idyllic South American surroundings.
From school she chose a nursing career. "I went to work with a doctor who was pioneering heart transplants in Chile. Then I married," she said.