Stories

After a two-hour journey to Feodosiya on the other side of the peninsula, we joined a local church group who is already prepared to give out dozens of shoe boxes to needy children. Arriving at two children’s homes, the group performs a number of musical numbers, including a dramatic portrayal of the life of Jesus and a traditional Ukrainian Christmas folk song.

 Today we are taken to a tower block on the outskirts of Crimea's capital Simferopol to deliver the next batch of boxes with Operation Christmas Child. Children play outside in the snow as we are led up a stairwell into a cramped, two-room apartment that is home to a family of seven.

Leonora Kurti leads the National Leadership Team for Operation Christmas Child in Kosova. She is an amazing woman, with experience of organising general elections for Iraq, Jordan and her home country Kosova as well! 

BRINGING presents to sick children in hospital is something that takes place all around the world at Christmas.  But for the youngsters of the Bobrov Children’s Hospital in the city of Yalta in the Ukraine, a visit by the Operation Christmas Child team was a very special occasion.

Djevad lives in Montenegro with his mum, dad, uncle, aunt and his 6 brothers and sisters in their makeshift home.

The 2008 Operation Christmas Child campaign is in full swing, with thousands of volunteers across the country busy sorting through shoe boxes and helping them on their way to 13 countries around Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

In Maidenhead, Berkshire, around 70 volunteers have been busy giving up their time to make OCC happen at the United Reformed Church in the centre of town – a satellite warehouse for the past three years.

Our first distribution this morning was to a rehabilitation unit (hospital) for 100 children with special needs living in Sokobanjsk. We settled into a regular routine of watching while local children perform songs and dance for us, then we respond with a short word from me, songs and tricks from Jason and Pete, and then the distribution begins.

The second part of our stay in Romania was further north in Transylvannia in a town called Cluj Napoca. Here the stark contrasts were between those with money and employment and the many without. The shoe boxes here were being distributed by a Christian charity that carries out social work across the country - Ecce Homo. We heard how unemployment is a really big problem - if you are working medical contributions are taken out

Operation Christmas Child 2008 has been a great success with around 129 temporary warehouses opening across the UK since 1st November. These warehouses are run by volunteers for volunteers to visit to help us get the thousands of gift-filled shoe boxes ready for their journey to needy children overseas in time for Christmas.