A Reflective Farewell

In June 1993 I had an interview for an office placement for the charity Operation Christmas Child and as it was unpaid, I got the job.


OCC was made up of the brilliant and remarkable people who seemed to believe in me from day

In Belarus Dec 2012, my last OCC trip - with fellow blogger
Michelle Pannell  - photo Jonty Wilde

one. The following year I was employed by OCC and when it was taken over by Samaritan's Purse in 1994/95, they kept me on. Although I did everything from marketing to fundraising and running the yearly conference, mostly I looked after the volunteers - Representatives as we called them then – writing the Stop Press newsletter to them ­­­­­­filling it with human interest stories garnered from staff who had been overseas which I knew were so popular.

I worked with so many remarkable characters who seemed to flourish in the informal yet thriving atmosphere at Wrexham. Too numerous to mention - (I am bound to miss someone off the list) they all had something to give and add to the mix. Myself and that early team sat around the kitchen table in the Wrexham warehouse and laid the foundations of what the shoebox campaign is today with age groups and boy/girl stickers, leaflet with an envelope attached for the donation. Cartons were introduced for each category of shoebox for easier distribution.

 The Big planes – the Antotov 124 were used to deliver the shoeboxes for many years. When the plane left from Liverpool airport hundreds of children were encouraged onto the runway to see them off – hard to imagine that happening now! At one send off all the senior staff had flown on the plane and the only staff member available to talk to journalists was me. My sister (who lives abroad) was astonished to see her little sister on the Sky News that evening.

Thursday 28th March was my last day of my employment with SP. I leave a charity which is very different from those early days. No longer focussing of the delivery of aid, but carrying out sustainable interventions that allow people to develop and keep their dignity by helping themselves.

But shoeboxes remain at the core of it. Although the 'real world' of NGOs may view OCC with rather a critical eye, I think that is because they don’t see the whole picture – not just overseas but in the UK as well. OCC means different things to people, but for me it teaches our children about giving. Of course, some shoeboxes are given out and instantly forgotten, or not appreciated or misunderstood….but some of them - we will never know how many - have done something special and life changing.

As the charity has developed so have I.

So thank you Samaritan’s Purse, you have given me the best most fulfilling job anyone could wish for. I have learned so much, travelled the world and gained many skills. I am now equipped to get on with the next portion of my life.

 Writing this, I have realised that I have far too much to relate about OCC for just one post, so I will continue to record my memories here. You might like to continue to read and comment on them….

Hitting the (Snowy) Ground Running in Belarus

It has been a few years since I have had the honour of giving out the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, but I write this after a short OCC trip to Minsk in Belarus. My companions on the trip were photographer Jonty Wilde and a well-known blogger called Michelle Pannell  our objective was to get stories and images to feedback to all our wonderful volunteers in the UK.

We were whisked off in a minibus to a town an hours drive away and were ushered into a Social Centre. These centres provide care for children who stay for 6 months whilst plans for their return to their parents or places with foster families are put into place. All of their stories are sadly similar with poor parenting and alcohol addiction being the source of most of their problems.

Photo: Jonty Wilde

Although all of the places in Belarus are decorated in a style quite alien to our UK tastes, it was a warm and friendly place and we were well received. The children came in and soon spotted the colourful shoeboxes piled up in the corner a quiet excitement built up in the room. So with no more delays than necessary, I told them through the translator where the boxes had come from and how children wanted to send them their love. And here it was in a box!

It's extraordinary what a few small gifts do - the children lifted the lids, smiled and seemed unable to comprehend that there were more gifts under the treasures they could see on the top. I knelt down and showed them how to explore.

Masha was one of the older girls at the centre and I looked through her box with her and later discovered her story as we were given refreshments with the staff who told us the stories behind each of those eager little faces.

Masha gets something of her own at last.
Photo: Jonty Wilde

Although she is well cared for at the centre, we heard that Masha much prefers the freedom she had at her family home, even though this freedom meant she had to cook and keep the house.  Masha never really knew her father and he retains no parental rights. Sadly, her mother has a severe drinking problem and due to this cannot work to support her children adequately.

They are currently looking for a foster family for Masha, as her mother has failed to make the necessary improvements to be able to have her home. Masha’s brother has commenced legal proceedings to sever the mother’s parental rights. Despite this, Masha loves her mother and maintains regular contact with her.

All too soon we felt it was time to go. Having been given a little song from the children Michelle and I did a quick rendition of 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' to a rather bemused audience!

As a footnote to this story; after lunch we were shown around the centre and saw the children again in their dormitory rooms. In their natural environment, away from the eyes of prying foreigners we really did see the joy and heard the laughter that the little box can bring.

ABC of OCC - T

Operation Christmas Child began with the thought of a journey to Romania. Transport was the first problem that the founders of OCC had in 1990 – how do we get to Romania? It’s a story that has often been told, but let’s tell it again. One of the team – Dai Hughes worked for a local radio station and an appeal was broadcast to Wrexham people to help. And help they did. Not only with money and goods, but transport. Haulage companies and drivers came forward to help. On 12^th Dec 1990, the first Operation Christmas Child convoy of vehicles and 17 volunteers, left for Romania containing toys, medical aid and those first shoeboxes.

Over the years that followed Europe was hit by another human catastrophe – war in the Balkans and once again Operation Christmas Child found itself looking at traumatised and needy children. Once again trucks were packed full of aid and shoeboxes and once again volunteer drivers gave of their time to deliver comfort to suffering children. The shoebox appeal itself had taken on a life of its own and people were responding to its simple premise – fill a box of gifts and we will take it to a child for you.

But we needed to get them there quickly and in 1992, the first airlift of aid took place using a Hercules plane from Hawarden Airport in North Wales to Zagreb. The following year the massive Antonov 124 (picutred right) eventually took off from Liverpool Airport – containing an unprecedented 60,000 shoeboxes. 

In 1994 Operation Christmas Child became part of the Christian Humanitarian aid organisation, Samaritan’s Purse and was exclusively about shoeboxes. A global organisation, its transport systems were already in place in far flung places in Asia and Africa. 

Shoeboxes were delivered not just in trucks and vans, but a variety of vehicles and creatures as they reaches more remote areas where poverty and need were a part of everyday life for people. So it was not unusual for helicopters, sledges, boats, camels, bikes and even elephants to be used to get the shoeboxes to where they were needed… I don’t suppose my fellow Welshmen in their transit vans expected that all those years ago…..

ABC of OCC - S

S is for Social Media. "Social Media? Why on earth would Operation Christmas Child want to get involved in Social Media?" Since my move to the communications department of Samaritan's Purse, I am a person who is fairly new to the concept of social networking. However, in the brief time I have been involved - I have to admit I am a convert.

Of course, I am aware that if you are reading this you are already someone who at least got a passing interest in using this platform for communication. I hope therefore that you can help us further by becoming part of our Social network community and maybe becoming an advocate for it. We have already been gaining great wins using Facebook, Twitter and You Tube which has resulted in real growth for the OCC campaign to new audiences - both in terms of general support and also real practical help from new volunteers.

We have already over 28,254 fans on the OCC UK Facebook page and every day there are many posts telling us about the ways that people are getting involved and messages of support. e.g.

Dawn Ellingham Martin Checked through our stuff and on track to make over 30 boxes. God is good x 

Pauline Palmer My boxes are all done except for the Christmas wrapping paper. I won't be chasing around to finish them this year!

Patricia Ayton Smith I've being doing a shoebox for about 6 years, and I've always done a boy's shoebox, probably because my only child is a boy, now aged nearly 10. This year, i've decided to do a girl's shoexbox, and today, i've bought some really lovely girlie things! I haven't finished yet, got some more shopping to do........

They are also amazing at finding bargains - which they share with each other:

Mandy Price I bought loads if Olympic merchandise for boxes when they were selling it cheap. Alex the lion toy was 50p in Tesco a few weeks ago too!

In addition some really great discussions take place and lots of issues are dealt with by our regular contributors. This enables us to 'steer' people in the right direction for diverse subjects such as the supply of shoeboxes, contents, size of boxes.

Meanwhile on Twitter, we have nearly 1,000 followers and find its a great way to share messages quickly about the progress of the campaign and to share photos like this one (above). We also have blogs - some specifically about OCC - like the one from Guildford and some from staunch supporters and like our Puppet Lady and this one from the attic of course!

So please, encourage others to support us this way - 'share' on Face Book rather than just 'like' and retweet rather than just open the link and read and it would be great if you could share this blog too! There are lots of who have still yet to know about OCC - so why not be a part of telling someone about it today? After all, it is just a few clicks away....

Locations and Lessons

This is what the maps in the email will look like
showing where all shoeboxes were distributed

After the Operation Christmas Child shoebox campaign 2011/2012, we were able to tell shoebox donors who gave their £2.50 shoebox donation online which country their shoeboxes went to. This proved very popular and was one of the most successful 'email blasts' we have ever done. We are going to send those donors another email this week. It will contain an update from that country and a map showing the various locations the shoeboxes reached in each country.

It was my job to read through the reports from our partners in each country to get quotes and stats for these emails. I also had to find the towns and villages where shoeboxes had been distributed across the 12 countries in eastern Europe, FSU and Africa. Google Maps came in very handy for this; I learned a new technical skill and improved my geography no end!

In some countries, such as Liberia, matching up the location our partners had described to the maps was a frustrating and time consuming task. I got there in the end and hopefully, our donors will enjoy this extra information and their map. I guess they could go into Google and click that little yellow man to zoom in to see the places for themselves.. such are the wonders of our technological world.

If you would like to take part in Operation Christmas Child this year and would like to know where your shoebox goes, here's where to start  and you can even make a shoebox from the comfort of your home without doing all that tedious shopping around and thinking up of ideas with the amazing 'Shoebox World' 

Barefoot in Minus Five Degrees

Part of my job with Samaritan's Purse involves reading the stories in the shoebox distribution reports and it reminds me how fortunate and grateful I am that I have such an interesting job, which perhaps makes a tiny difference in the world.  Some of the most harrowing stories of Operation Christmas Child distributions were from Romania, which is a country where poverty still bites hard particularly in rural areas. This one is an example written by our partners:


"Getting to the village of Mosoroasa in Romania is very difficult. You need to follow a rutted track and when it rains even this is impassable. These children live in very poor conditions, which are hard to imagine. They don’t have running water, electricity or the facilities for a normal life.

"But when we brought the shoeboxes, we could see extraordinary joy reflected in their faces. The shoeboxes are not just presents. For the poor families, the items in the shoeboxes cover some of the children’s needs for school and provide warmth and clothing.

Our partners continued, “Looking back, we do not remember the hard work or the obstacles we faced, but we do remember the faces of those children which radiated joy when they were holding the shoebox in their hands even though they were barefoot when it was -5 Celsius.

“We remember the tears of the mothers running down the muddy streets to thank us because we went to her poor house. It was a campaign in which God's grace upon us was fully manifested, we are blessed that we are part of the OCC team.”

If you would like to give a shoebox this year here's where to start - or you can even give a shoebox this year without leaving your armchair via Shoebox World

In Anticipation of Campaign 2012

Monday 24th September 2012 - I ventured out of the attic this morning to attend 2 local schools presenting assemblies - the first of the 2012 shoebox campaign.

The first one needed quite a lot of preparation as it was about International Co-operation and Understanding between countries. A couple of hours research and head scratching later one PowerPoint was produced for Year 12 of Castell Alun in the wonderfully named Hope village just outside Wrexham.

The students are doing their Welsh Baccalaureate, and, following my presentation, they were going to go ahead with ideas of their own, looking at ways to be global citizens. This links in to the work of Samaritan's Purse well and so it's all very admirable for the education of a future generation....

Before I went, I had spent some time renewing the wrapping paper on my shoeboxes. I furtled (technical term) about in the other end of my attic and found some gold starry paper. Next stage was to encourage old Mungo the teddy bear off the sofa and into the box and hope that no one notices that the sweets are far too old (I have been using the contents for demonstration purposes for some years now) to ever bring joy to a child....

Me & Mungo at Ysgol Estyn School, Hope

My second assembly was to little ones at Ysgol Estyn who were eager to tell me all about their own Christmases and seemed to be pretty pleased that they could take part this year. I remembered the lessons I learned from my early teaching days when asking an obvious question - "don't shout out..... Hands up" worked a treat!

So here's to a great campaign......

This Conference is Going to be Great!

Fun and fellowship and lots of new information
at the Samaritan's Purse Conference

I travelled to Dudley yesterday to meet the staff at The Village http://www.village-hotels.co.uk/hotels/dudley which is the venue for Samaritan's Purse Conference - first weekend in June. It has been a difficult week for me and I was feeling a bit low - it was not helped by the early start and traffic jams on the way. When I arrived, I was hot and thirsty and not feeling particularly positive about the meeting, sure that there were going to be barriers put up as I explained my plans for the Conference to them.

Natalie, the Conference Organiser met me immediately and got me a drink then introduced me to Pippa who is in charge of getting the rooms ready - (I am sure she has a proper job title!). As we all went through the programme I started to relaxed - want coffee on the demand? Can do. Want more rooms? Yep that's fine. Want us to hide a treasure for you? (http://www.turnonthetap.org.uk/hide-treasure)  No problem. Oh, and by the way we though it would be great if our staff to do a 24-hour fundraising event over the weekend - is that okay with you? Looking around the venue I saw many things I'd not noticed before, the huge pool has 2 Jacuzzis, the reception is bright and large and all the staff have huge smiles on their faces. Natalie loves her job and gave me all the time I needed.

I was treated to lunch and met the hotel manager who was very enthusiastic about The Village brand and is keen to ensure that everything goes right for us. We even persuaded him to help us with the 24 hour event!

I came away from there will my head full of great ideas. Whilst I can't quite yet relax, I am happy knowing that the staff at The Village are on-side and will do everything to make our volunteers’ weekend as comfortable as possible. Samaritan's Purse staff are also working hard on their seminars and sessions so that delegates can go back to their Regions in confidence – their heads bursting with new knowledge about SP & OCC having had a wonderful weekend of fabulous food, fellowship and friendship.

Want to come? You can still book a place via this link  http://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/Conference-201

Hiding Treasure:What I am Doing This Weekend

Like many people, we love to walk at the weekend. We  live in the most beautiful part of the UK - North Wales (although I know you may challenge me on that) and I am very excited that I can lead people to some of my favourite places locally and raise money for Samaritan's Purse's water projects.

Beautiful North Wales - I may hide some treasure here..

I am going to hide Turn on the Tap treasures near to our favourite walks, parks and beauty spots (I might even hide one in my front garden) and register directions to find it on our website http://www.turnonthetap.org.uk/hide-treasure. In June folk can get directions to find the treasure in return for a donation to Turn on the Tap. When they find the treasure they sign the log sheet but leave the treasure there for the next group to find. Simple! For it to work properly we need hundreds of treasures hidden across the UK so we do need you to take part over the next few weeks. Please ask friends, relatives and colleagues to do likewise and hide a treasure in their favourite place - they don't even have to make a donation to Turn on the Tap.

To make the treasure, you get a small plastic box (I am using those plastic boxes that take-aways come in these days) and put in a water related small 'treasure' and the log sheet from the website. Then mark the front Turn on the Tap treasure and its ready to hide. All the instructions are on our updated Turn on the Tap website. 


Incidentally, I have been racking my brains about what I can put in my treasure box - so I have sent my dear old Mum to town today to see what she can find. I told her it has to be water related, of little or no monetary value and small enough to fit in that box.  Will let you know what she finds! I also thought I might add a little water poem for folk to read when they find my treasure. I remembered this one from when my children were small from Spike Milligan:

There are holes up in the sky

Where the rain comes in

But the holes are only small

That's why the rain is thin

Happy hiding everyone!!

Samaritan's Purse at the Ideal Home Show

Me, with one of those wonderful
£48 Water Filters that provide
clean, safe water for life!

 I was asked to attend the Ideal Home Show for Samaritan's Purse ...no that's not quite true - I offered. Well, it seemed too good an opportunity to turn down. I'd not been to the show since I was a Convent School girl way back in the 60s so I was looking forward to being part of it - although I realised that I wouldn't see much in my hour lunch break.

Our attending this show was an idea that came about because we need to reach a new audience. We have been attending Christian events such as Spring Harvest and New Wine and had many enthusiastic people visit the stand, but that was the trouble - most already knew about us and our work. So reaching out to a secular audience made sense.

The stand was well designed and depicted one of the recipients of our Water Filters with the caption "This is my Ideal Home". We had a bio-sand water filter there - rigged to show clean water tumbling out of it into a bucket, lots of leaflets and a full briefing on what to say.

Despite the fact that many of the people at the show were there to look at things which would improve their own lives (me included I think!) it was surprising how many meaningful conversations we had with people. The world is a small place and I met many folk who had had first hand experience about the lack of clean water in the world. Those who didn't or who thought we were flogging a new kind of water feature for their garden (well, we were on the edge of the Ideal Garden section!) were really shocked by the statistics - 1 in 8 people in the world don't have access to water and every 20 seconds a child dies because of lack of clean water.

Things I don't know after this particular exercise - how many people will act on what they discovered about Samaritan's Purse's work, how much extra money we will raise and why the level of water in the bucket slowly disappeared.....!

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.

ABC of OCC - P

Romania, Dec 1990 Paul Wilcox in 1990 -
this is the very first image
taken of children with  OCC shoeboxes.

P is for photos. It has been my privilege over the years to be on the 'front line' as images of children joyously receiving their shoeboxes come into the OCC office. In the pre-digital age, the actual prints used to be very precious: I remember choosing prints from contact sheets, ordering many copies which were then sent to newspapers with a plea for them to return the print!

It has been a pleasure to see the work of wonderful photographers such as Jonty Wilde, David Lund, Nigel Dobson and many more.

In the digital age of course, it became conveniently easy to duplicate an image to share the joy of the child - almost instantly. However, the sheer number of images was almost a disadvantage, as everyone on OCC trips took many photos (usually of the same child). They were no longer restricted by the number of shots they had left on their film, so it was not unusual to get a CD containing over 1000 shots from one five-day trip which collated all the images taken by team members. Ploughing through these discs took hours, but of course, produced wonderful results.


Belarus, Dec 2010 Linda Thompson
A sick, abandoned child in hospital
loves his teddy


Now there are more changes as sites such as Facebook and Flickr mean that photographs are easily available to everyone. I have to keep a keen eye on Facebook along with everyone else to see the first images. This is wonderful, but also means that we cannot keep images exclusive to those who perhaps 'deserve' to see them first. The hardworking Area Co-ordinators and drivers who are the driving force behind getting the boxes to the children should perhaps be the first to see the first child get a box, but it is sadly no longer possible to do this. Such is progress: we re-balance our expectations to accommodate changes which can only be to the good.

You can see collections of OCC photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/samaritanspurseuk/

ABC of OCC - O




Children in Crimea receiving shoeboxes this week.
Photo: David Lund 

  O is for Operation Christmas Child - very suitable as this is my last post before Christmas! It has been a tough campaign this year for our volunteers. The dreadful weather has caused many problems - vans getting stuck in the snow, cold conditions in the warehouses and the delay of trucks. One team in the South had their truck cancelled four times! When you have your head down boxes, arranging transport doing all the paperwork it is easy to forget exactly WHY you are doing it.

Perhaps everyone has a different response to that question. Some do it as a demonstration of their faith, some like the company and friendly atmosphere and others just like messing about with roller trucks! But at the heart of this is the totally unselfish need that people have to help others - of showing God's love in a practical way.

So what is the impact of Operation Christmas Child? CNN recently published story about sixteen-year-old Valery Bianco and his 13-year-old sister Marina Bianco who know firsthand what shoeboxes could mean to a child. "I was almost 10 when I received my shoe box, and it was touching to receive a gift as an orphan, someone people don't care about," Valery says.
Those shoe boxes were the first gifts that Valery and Marina received during their life at a Russian orphanage. When they were sent to the orphanage years earlier, they were not allowed to bring any possessions with them. Birthdays were not celebrated and there were no toys to be found on Christmas morning. All the two siblings had was each other."I would see him fight with other boys and I would run into my room and hope he was OK. There were so many fights," Marina said.

For Marina, the shoebox came when she needed it the most. She was 6 years old when it arrived. At that point, she was becoming very angry, finding herself in a lot of fights as well, she started believing that she had nothing to fight for. "I did not care what happened to me," Marina said. "People would want to beat up on me. I thought, well that is what life is. But when I received the shoebox, I realized that someone did care for me in the world, and I thought that I should live a good life."

Her shoebox had the simplest items: A small towel, a few toiletries, a colouring book and stickers and a cuddly toy. For Marina, these possessions meant she was worth something. "I realized you can be anyone you want, that you can control your own life," Marina said.

They have now been adopted and live in the USA and are making shoeboxes themselves for others. For the full story see http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/12/17/iyw.shoebox.gift/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Happy Christmas everyone.

ABC of OCC - N





Kenya 2007 - photo: David Lund

N is for need. On 12th December 1990 the first convoy of vehicles left Wrexham Guildhall under the name Operation Christmas Child. This was after the need of children in Romania was transmitted into our comfortable homes after the revolution. At a recent Celebration Service to mark this anniversary one of the speakers Steve Robinson said "It is not right that we have to deliver gifts to children or that there are people suffering all over the world." it would be a wonderful and fair world indeed if there was were no needy people and Humanitarian Aid did not have to exist. But need there is.

In the world today over 22,000 children die every day - that is 1 child dying every 4 seconds or 15 children dying every minute.

UNICEF tell us that
• 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation
• 1 billion children are deprived of one or more services essential to survival and development
• 148 million under 5s in developing regions are underweight for their age
• 101 million children are not attending primary school, with more girls than boys missing out
• 8 million children worldwide died before their 5th birthday in 2009
• 2 million children under 15 are living with HIV

Solving these issues is seemingly an impossible task, but we have to keep trying. Samaritan's Purse work all over the world delivering aid, helping bring safe clean water and seeing to the needs of the poor. Shoeboxes in themselves don't save lives or feed the hungry, but they do bring hope, which can change lives. While the need of people is still there, there will always be a need for charities like Samaritan's Purse.

ABC of OCC- M

Children in Belraus entertaining the OCC team
before a distribution of shoeboxes

M is for Music. There is so much I can say about OCC and music. From the music that has been written about the shoeboxes as people become inspired by the work - '(the best for me was Melisa Bester's Love in a Box' ) - to the music that echoes around the OCC warehouses as the volunteers sing and dance their way through the checking of the boxes (sometimes!)

Overseas, there's the music that welcomes us as we go into schools to deliver the shoeboxes. As part of a huge welcome to us, we have been sung traditional folk music in all the countries that we visit, fun nursery rhymes by little ones in their own languages and invited to dance in joyous thanksgiving events for the shoeboxes. Perhaps best of all, the rousing choruses of the children in Kenya and Liberia as they bang out rhythms on the shoeboxes in a frenzy of anticipation before they open their boxes.

Where OCC and music came together in sweet harmony was back in Kosova in 2006, when Miroslav, a child living in a poor community with his parents opened a box and drew out a little guitar. This brought tears to the father's eyes. He explained that he had been a musician, but could no longer perform as his instruments had been sold long ago to feed the family. I sometimes wonder whether Miroslav was ever inspired to take up music because of the shoebox....

ABC of OCC - L

L is for love...of course. From the early days of OCC, it was noticed that the contents of the box were greater than the sum of its parts. There was something else inside. It was almost as though those poor needy children in Romania were touched by something they had never felt before - the love and care that went into the box when it was made.

In preparation for a Celebration Service we are having in Wrexham this Sunday - (12th December 1990 is when the first operation Christmas Child Convoy left) I have been talking to some of the people who visited orphanages in Romania after the revolution and reading the old newspaper reports abot OCC. To say that the team were traumatised doesn't come close, some just could not cope with seeing children who were completely unloved and uncared for. Paul Wilcox who worked for the Wrexham Mail at the time wrote:

“Although I’d mentally prepared myself for this, it was beyond all my imaginations. There wasn’t one of us who didn’t break down in tears at one point or another. We saw rooms full of kids starved of affection and love. The children had no stimulation at all and when we gave them the shoeboxes their faces just lit up. One of the kids didn’t know what to do with the box and as the driver took things out of the box, the child became so overwhelmed that his legs gave way and he just fainted."

In 2008, we were giving shoeboxes out in an orphanage in Belarus. Although short of resources these places are staffed by ladies who really care for the children who do their best - (Sting once sang The Russians Love Their Children Too). There was a little girl there who was very quiet and we were told that her mother had brought her to the place when she was 18 months old saying that she would be back soon to pick her up. That was 3 years ago and little Misha still waits... but at least this Christmas she had a present with a little note inside that told her she was loved....

ABC of OCC - K

SP's Alan Cutting took this wonderful picture of
a child in Kyrgyzstan during the 2008 distribution

K is for Kyrgyzstan - which is one of the recipients of the shoeboxes this year. It is a poor, mountainous country with a predominantly agricultural economy. The country has suffered political upheaval and severe ethnic unrest in recent months.

Mountain ranges make it difficult for the team to reach out to parts of the country during winter, particularly in the south, however, last year we were able to send 66,202 shoeboxes to this needy country with the most beautiful children - although it can take up to 20 days for a container to get there.

When Chris Roberts, one of SP's Regional Managers went to Kyrgyzstan in the 2008/09 campaign he met a little girl he could'nt forget.

"Gula is twelve years old and lives with her older brother and baby sister in a small town in Kyrgyzstan. Due to her brother's illness, she takes on her mothers duties when she is out and when we call around with some shoeboxes she is preparing the evening meal. When she starts to open her box and take things out she has her head bowed and becomes very quiet.

'My mother has never been able to buy me things like this,' she says looking up with tears welling up in her eyes. 'She would have if she could'.

"We respond through the translator and she nods, smiling in response. Even as we leave, ten minutes later, it is clear that she is having great difficulty keeping her emotions in check".
Don't forget that you can still make a shoebox via Shoebox World - http://www.operationchristmaschild.org.uk/shoeboxworld/

ABC of OCC - J

The team at Wrexham preparing a load in 2009

J is for journey. The 2010 shoeboxes are on their way from warehouses across the UK; the first load left Melksham bound for Liberia on 12th November.

To prepare the shoeboxes for their journey they are checked and sealed with special Samaritan's Purse tape and carefully packed into cartons. Each carton has the same category of shoebox that is, Boy or Girl in one of the age categories. This information is put on the outside so that our partners overseas can easily identify what the carton contains. This method has been developed over the many years of consulting our partners about what works best for them.

Each load is around 10,000 shoeboxes and strong and able bodied volunteers gather at the warehouses to ensure that the load is packed to ensure the maximum number of shoeboxes are on board - for this reason we don't use pallets as they take up too much valuable space. Paperwork is a vital part of this process so that what is on the truck matched what is on the manifest to ensure smooth passage through customs. Some are put in containers - these are bound for the further flung places such as Swaziland. There is a celebratory feeling as the volunteers load the finished product - always the result of many months hard work.

The shoebox's journey is long and it may take 4 or 5 days to reach a country in Eastern Europe and even longer for a container to get overseas. But they all get there and waiting for them at the other end is an anxious partner ready to deliver them straight into the waiting hands of needy children in his beloved country.

ABC of OCC - I

I is for integrity - Samaritan's Purse is a Christian organisation which is greatly respected in all the countries across the world in which it works. The Operation Christmas Child project is open to people from all walks of life, faith, race and ethnic background and the boxes are given to needy children unconditionally. Over many years Samaritan’s Purse has provided aid to suffering people of many different religions, including Muslims, in countries throughout the world. They do not let their religious beliefs be a barrier; indeed, it encourages them to reach out and help anyone in need of assistance.

Samaritan’s Purse was active in Iraq, providing supplies and equipment to Al-Yarmouk Hospital in Baghdad. To quote its director, Dr Mahdi Jasim Moosa, who is a Muslim, interviewed about Samaritan’s Purse: "They were very easy to work with. Please, tell them we're so grateful. They said they would be back - and we hope they come back. Workers with Samaritan’s Purse didn’t preach or attempt to convert people".

It is upsetting sometimes to see that the good work that Samaritans' Purse does is undermined by rumour and speculation by people who hide behind websites to tell their lies. I speak as someone who has seen their good work at first hand and I am always fully comfortable with what SP do. There! off my soap box now...