ABC of OCC - R

A child at the 'Patarat' community
which is on the city dump

R is for Romania. Where it all began. In December 1990, when Dave Cooke led the first convoy to Romania he only knew that he was to meet a man with a beard at a roadsign outside Cluj, Romania.

Sure enough, there he was. That man was Liviu Balas head of the newly formed Christian charity Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man"). Liviu took them to the orphanages and Ecce Homo has been taking shoeboxes to children in Romania ever since.

The work of Ecce Homo has brought about change for many poor and suffering children over the last 20 years, through Social Assistance, provision of Summer Camps, Children's Clubs and Women's Groups. It focuses on children's emotional recovery and developing their skills for an independent life.

Liviu Balas - our man in Romania

Plus, of course, they still distribute shoeboxes right across Romania (last year it was around 150,000!)  In 2006, Liviu told us the story of Claudiu who was only a few months old when he was abandoned by his mother and left in his grandparents care who were very needy themselves. One night, he was chopping wood with his grandfather and he saw the sparkling of decorated Christmas Trees standing in the windows of other houses. How he longed for such a tree and a warm home... and at that moment he lifted his head up to the sky saw a shooting star and made a wish that he wanted a box of toys as a Christmas gift. When his wish came true with the shoebox - he couldn't believe his eyes! The beautifully wrapped box that he received not only had toys, but also sweets. God's answer to his prayer that night will stay forever as a light in Claudiu's heart.

Liviu says "When you bring a smile to a child's face, you witness a miracle!" Please join us this year and tell your friends and family to make a shoebox - they really do change lives and attitudes.

ABC of OCC - Q

Q - might seems difficult, but no, it came quite easily. In Operation Christmas Child's World Q is obviously for questions. When the idea of putting toys into a shoebox to give to children overseas first came about I don't think anyone thought that there would be any need for further clarification. Get some toys and put into the box, right? Um, nooooo and in the 20 years of OCC I could probably write a book of the questions that folk have asked.

I loved answering those questions and never minded when an elderly lady would be on the phone for 20 minutes itemising everything she had put in her box and checking it was suitable. Because behind all those questions is real care and concern for children. People have seen suffering and want to put it right. But they want to put it right, right. So hence the questions. So keep on asking them - we don't mind - but read the leaflet first as the answers should be on there.



The Wacky Bus -
1993 - 1994

 The daftest question?  In the 1990s we were given an old bus by British Aerospace to take around schools to highlight the fact that we were going to fill the BIGgest plane in the World (the Antonov 124) with shoeboxes. A team of volunteers painted it in bright colours and it had a funny face on the front and 'wings' stuck on the side made of fibreglass. It probably had a top speed of 30 miles per hour with the wind behind it. However, it made quite an impact when it arrived and the children would often ask in wonder - "Does it fly?"



Fying high -
the Antonov 124 - Heavylift's spectacular plane used to
deliver shoeboxes until c. 2004



Perhaps the most memorable (but ironic) question was at the end of that campaign when after all the fuss - hundreds of children, press, TV interviews etc the plane developed a fault and could'nt take off. Miserbably we all clambered on the coach and some wag said, "What's big and does'nt fly?". 

In case you are wondering, the plane successfully took off at midnight and delivered 60,000 shoeboxes to Bosnia. The fault really was a one-off and we used the plane for many years to deliver shoeboxes thanks to a special relationship with HeavyLift Cargo Airlines.