An ABC of OCC - E

 E is for efficiency - it is at this time of year that you realised just what a complex event Operation Christmas Child is. This week the boxes will begin to arrive at Drop Off Points and schools where they pile up in brightly coloured mountains in corridors and sports halls. So what happens next? Just HOW do the gifts get from the school into the hands of a needy child?

The answer is the combined efficiency of some very talented and committed volunteers - with a little help from SP staff. For administration purposes, Samaritan's Purse has split the UK into 9 Regions each of which has a Regional Manager who looks after the Area Teams with the Region. The Area Teams are run by and for volunteers and there are around 150 of these teams across the UK. (pictured above the team in Jarrow 2007)

The charity has only a few full time warehouses so Area Teams have to source free premises and set them up as full working warehouses - with all the health and safety factors considered. Tables, chairs, roller trucks, cages pallets all come out of storage from garages, gardens sheds & spare bedrooms. Posters are put up and signing tables set-up. Then they are ready to roll!

The volunteers phone every school, church and organisation who has ordered leaflets to organise the collections. OCC drivers are out in all weathers from very early in the morning and they are very often the last to arrive back to the warehouse and yes, they load each shoebox on and each shoebox off - sometimes hundreds of times. The volunteers at the warehouse check every box to ensure it is right for the country it is going to load them into cartons. When they have enough for a load (around 10,000-although sometime part loads are sent) a truck is ordered from SP's brilliant Logistics Manager. (Pictured right volunteers at Harnham Free Church nr Salisbury)

The overseas partner is alerted that the truck of shoeboxes is on its way and gets their own volunteers ready to unload them the other end. The overseas partner has already identified the children who will get the boxes and events will have been organised for the distribution of the boxes. (left pictured is Nicolai in Belarus - photo Jonty Wilde). So efficient is the OCC that we begin to send our first shoeboxes out the 2nd week in November and well over 1 million are delivered to over 12 countries by January. Amazing!