Volunteers needed to help make Christmas special for needy children
By Mary O’connor
Volunteers are needed locally to help make Christmas special for needy children in Africa and Eastern Europe.
Operation Christmas Child, which has sent 115,000 gift filled shoeboxes to deserving children since the Galway branch was formed 10 years ago, is seeking helpers each week night at Ballybrit Racecourse from 7pm to 9pm and from 10.30am to 12.30pm on Saturdays.
Ray Clarke, area co-ordinator of Operation Christmas Child, says the project would not succeed without volunteers.
“They give of their time each year to prepare the boxes for despatch and we own them a great debt of gratitude. They spend endless hours in the Racecourse checking the boxes and adding fillers.”
Operation Christmas Child (OCC) is the largest known children’s Christmas project in the world. It started in 1990 following television coverage of the desperate condition in which children lived in Romanian orphanages. A team from the UK travelled to an orphanage with aid which included individual gifts for the children in shoeboxes. This was the start of the ‘Love in a box” project which began some years later in Ireland.
Mr Clarke says the success of the project is probably due to the simplicity of the idea - a child in Galway sending a Christmas gift to a needy child in Africa or Eastern Europe.
“Worldwide the project has been embraced by 11 countries and distributions now happen in over 100 countries annually. We appreciate that in these difficult days many people do not have the same disposable income but were it not for Operation Christmas Child many of these children would receive absolutely nothing this Christmas season.
“To prepare a box is simple. We ask schoolchildren, organisations, company employees, etc, to fill a shoebox. We prompt ideas by asking them to focus on the 4Ws.
Warm - woolly hat, scarf, gloves
Wash - soap, facecloth, toothpaste, toothbrush
Write - paper, colouring book, pencils, crayons
Wonder - a surprise, sweets, soft toys, jewellery, cars.
No religious literature is included in the boxes and only in appropriate Christian settings, and at the request of the overseas partners, are children given a small booklet telling of the birth and life of Jesus as this is the Christmas season.”
Gift filled shoeboxes can be delivered to OCC’s warehouse at the Racecourse Ballybrit or to its drop off centre at Curves, Liosban.
“We also ask local shops to consider this worthy cause and donate sweets or small toys which we add in to existing boxes.
He says the project greatly appreciates the support of local people. “I want to extend a special word of thanks to the teachers who continue to promote this concept of giving which is a valuable life lesson for every student. We are also thankful to the management of Galway Racecourse for the use of the facility to prepare the boxes and to the Civil Defence for their support in transporting boxes.
“Last year our gifts went to Swaziland, Armenia and Romania and our first consignment this year is also destined for Africa.”
For further information contact (091) 526190.