Operation Christmas Child

Each year OCC collects thousands of shoeboxes from children - each one packed full of toys, sweets and other goodies. Since 1990 they have delivered millions of these shoebox presents to children in countries like Bosnia, Romania, Russia and Armenia. Children contribute £2 each to help pay the costs of getting the box to the child. 

Now the idea has been taken up in Samaritan's Purse offices in the USA, Canada, Australia, and Holland. In 2001 more than 5.2 million shoeboxes were collected around the world, including more than 1 million in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

We collected over 250 shoeboxes in our school. It was a great learning experience for the children as they realise how fortunate they are here in Ireland and that there are children all around the world who are a lot less fortunate.