Children In Distress: Love in a Box

What does a shoebox mean to you? Literally a box to keep your shoes in? A box that comes with your new pair of shoes and then you discard it?

To an impoverished Romanian child receiving a shoebox at Christmas can mean everything!

Each year, Children in Distress run their ‘Shoebox Appeal’ or, as it is commonly known, ‘Love in a Box Appeal’. The charity asks its supporters to wrap a shoebox in bright, colourful Christmas paper and fill it with a variety of items which can include small gifts, sweets (but not milk chocolate), soap/flannel, toothbrush/paste, brush/comb, toiletries, gloves/scarf/hat, socks/tights, hair slides, small toys, small teddy bear, notebook, pens/pencils, felt pens, colouring book/crayons, puzzle/ball/yoyo/toy cars, balloons and a Christmas card. We also ask that £2 accompanies each box to help transport the boxes to Romania.

If, like me, you are fortunate to have children and grandchildren, you are no doubt aghast at the amount of presents bestowed on children at Christmastime. To a child in the Balkans, the gaily wrapped shoebox with its contents is more than likely the only present that child will receive for Christmas. It is not that the parents don’t want to give their children lovely presents, it is, quite simply, that they cannot afford to do so and put food on the table so the food (quite naturally!) wins every time. Last year some 7,000 Christmas shoeboxes were taken to Romania by Children in Distress and personally handed out by our very own Mos Craicun (Father Christmas) in churches, community centres, hospitals and schools.

Our ‘Love in a Box Appeal’ is now in full swing and, with your help, we look forward to sharing our Christmas joy with babies, children and OAPs once more in December. If you would like to make up a Christmas shoebox for our appeal, please contact me either by email or phone to join in the fun – email janerussell@childrenindistress.org.uk or phone 01751 432089 / 07775 695611 for more details. J