What?
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Operation Christmas Child is a kids-helping-kids project of Samaritan's Purse that uses simple gift-filled shoe boxes to let hurting children know that they are loved and not forgotten.
In 2010, Operation Christmas Child will reach more than 8 million children-many of whom have never received a gift before-with a message of hope and love. |
When? |
Now through Christmas 2010
Right now, kids, families, churches, scout troops, schools, civic clubs and businesses are fi lling their shoe boxes. In addition to collecting shoe box gifts year-round at the headquarters in Boone, N.C., Samaritan's Purse will be collecting gift-fi lled shoe boxes at more than 2,700 drop-off sites in all 50 states during National Collection Week, Nov. 15-22, 2010.
To find the nearest drop-off location call (800) 353-5949 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org. |
Who?
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Millions Worldwide
Generous kids, families, businesses and organizations in all 50 states and 12 additional countries will fi ll more than 8 million shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items, family photos and notes of encouragement for needy children.
More than 500,000 volunteers worldwide, including some 100,000 volunteers in the United States, will then help prepare the boxes for transport to distant lands. |
Where? |
Operation Christmas Child shoe box gifts are collected in 13 countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, Austria, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Samaritan's Purse and its national partners will hand-deliver each of the 8 million shoe box gifts to children in more than 100 countries on six
continents. Operation Christmas Child uses tracking technology that allows donors to "follow your box" to the destination country where it will be hand-delivered to a child in need. To register shoe box gifts and fi nd out to which country they are delivered, use the EZ Give donation form found at www.samaritanspurse.org. |
How?
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By land, air, sea and elephant
Shoe box gifts are prepared for overseas shipment in six major centers across the United States: Boone, N.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Minneapolis; Atlanta; Denver; and Orange County, Calif. The shoe box gifts are then loaded onto trucks, sea containers and sometimes even the world's largest cargo planes bound for the far reaches of the earth. Once the gifts are transported to countries around the world, Samaritan's Purse teams and partners distribute them by bus, train, helicopter, boat, elephant, mule and even dog sled. |
History: |
In 1990, Welsh couple Dave and Jill Cooke began Operation Christmas Child after witnessing the harsh conditions faced by children living in overcrowded Romanian orphanages. In less than three months, the Cooke's had collected enough items to send a convoy of nine trucks carrying £500,000 in aid supplies and thousands of gifts packed inside shoe boxes, to bring hope and love to the children of war-torn Romania.
In 1993, the Wales-based Operation Christmas Child partnered with international relief organization Samaritan's Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, providing them access to Samaritan's Purse's 20 years of expertise in relief work and expanding the reach of the project. Operation Christmas Child began in the United States in 1993 with 28,000 shoe box gifts. Since then, the kids-helping-kids project of Samaritan's Purse has collected and hand-delivered more than 77 million shoe box gifts to needy children in more than 130 countries, including: - Kids in China struggling to recover from the 2008 earthquake (2008 & 2009)
- Young children in the war-torn Republic of Georgia (2008)
- Hurting children stricken by poverty in war-ravaged Sudan (2007)
- Children in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries (2006)
- Young survivors of the horrifi c tsunami in Southeast Asia (2005)
- School children attacked by terrorists in Beslan, Russia (2004)
- Ugandan children devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic (2002)
- Children in Honduras and Nicaragua left homeless by Hurricane Mitch (1998)
- War orphans in Kosovo (1999), Bosnia and Croatia (1995-1996), and Rwanda (1994)
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Did You
Know? |
- U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have all packed Operation Christmas Child shoe box gifts for children in need.
- Headed by Franklin Graham, Samaritan's Purse is working in some 100 countries providing aid to victims of war, natural disaster, famine, disease and poverty.
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