For anyone who is interested in what makes good aid, and how as a donor you can tell what is worth supporting the ' good intentions are not enough' blog is excellent. goodintents.org/category/core-posts
She doesn't talk about shoebox gifts in particular but she does explain why gifts in kind (i.e. Shipping stuff we think people might need) is usually not the best idea.
She also has a very good thought experiment which could even be used with children in discussing what charity projects to support. Http://goodintents.org/aid-recipient-concerns/how-to-determine-if-an-aid-project-is-a-good-idea
Basically she says to reverse tge roles and imagine if we were the ones receiving aid, is this how we would want it. Here is my go at it:
Think about social problems in the UK - the most deprived areas: failing schools, families without work for generations, gangs, old people afraid of crime, children living in relative poverty, in care, neglected etc...
Now imagine a group of young well intentioned visitors from China. They don't speak English, they know nothing of our political systems or public services, and they have no training in social work or anything else, but they have heard of our problems and would genuinely like to help and to gently spread the word about Chinese communism.
They arrive with boxes for our poor hopeless children, wrapped in Chinese paper with images we don't understand. Inside are products that they think might be useful to poor families - clothes (but they are slightly odd, not like the clothes people buy here), wierd Chinese foods, toys that we've never seen before, some items that are completely incomprehensible, some that you can get in 3for 2 at Morrison's.... Well it's the thought that counts.
They seem well connected, their economy is doing much better than ours, they might come back and invest here, or buy up our government debt. Best be polite. Anyway it would be rude to refuse a well meant gift when people have come so far.
So the visitors come, they bring their gifts, they hug our hoodies and take photos with our babies. They hand out copies of Mao's little red book. They do nothing to help address or even try to understand the problems of our education system, economy, welfare system, health service. Apparently they have a busy schedule to deliver the same packages all over the poor
neighboorhoods of Europe and the US.
A local charity wonders if if it could have made better use of all the money spent on the gifts, the airfares and the hotels for the visitors. But no one asked them.
The visitors return home to China and tell their friends and colleagues of the humbling and life changing experience they had in the UK, and of how grateful the people were. Inspired they vow to come back next year.