To have written to the school about the Christmas shoebox scheme?

[gastrognome]

Just had a look through the leaflet sent home from DD1's school about the Christmas shoebox scheme that they are involved in.

Turns out the organisation adds religious literature to the boxes before they are distributed.

I love the idea of filling and sending a Christmas shoebox for somebody less privileged than us, but I really don't like the fact that these schemes are used as a means to evangelise. Of course Christmas is by its very nature a Christian festival but I don't think that it's right to "spread the word" by stealth.

So I just wrote to DD's school and suggested that next year they look for a similar scheme that isn't so evangelical in nature. I said I'd be happy to help research any organisations they could work with.

Do any others feel the same way, or have I turned into Scrooge?

Look, if you support this useless, obnoxious scam you are either gullible or have some rather unpleasant ideas.
Samaritan's Purse is an extrememly dodgy 'charity' - not just by way of the racism and sexism, but there seems to have been some hand-in-the-till stuff from the organisers as well (investigations for financial irregularity). Sending shoeboxes full of crap across the world is environmentally unfriendly, damaging and pointless.
By all means help your DC to think of the less fortunate at Christmas - fill a bag for your local charity shop, check out what local homeless charities might need, participate in the Refuge/John Lewis scheme, but BOYCOTT OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD.

Slightly off-topic: are you given any idea of where the boxes are going to? If you don't know, how can you tell whether "hats, gloves, socks etc" are going to be of any use?

Having looked at the leaflet that was linked to earlier, I think I would object on aesthetic grounds alone. Dreadful.

Thank you for posting that TheReal.

Things they aren't pushing anything. They are organising something which as TheReal says brings pleasure to children. The fact there may be a piece of paper in there as well is neither here nor there.

I wonder if these leaflets are in English anyway and if the children can actually read them in that case.

The leaflets are given to children, not adults. IMO that isn't quite as fair. I remember when I was 11 a Christian talk was fiven by a church at my school and we were all given leaflets and bibles. I got quite caught up in it because it was well presented, probably, in a way that cleverly appealled to children of that age. My upbringing was most definitely athiest at home and I then kept the bible hidden for secret reading for a few months. It disappeared then, probably found and laughed at confiscated by my parents My point is though, is that it is easier to convert children.

Quick - they are pushing - they say themselves that the point of the boxes is to give them an opportunity to evangelise the children.

I said further up the thread in a quote direct from Samaritans Purse that the leaflets are translated into the local language and given to the children - so they aren't in English and they make sure the children can read them

When I was teaching I used to organise some kind of charity giving at Christmas. Sometimes we did shoeboxes (for DHs charity mentioned in previous post) but on other years we made a collection at the Christmas concert (tickets were free) and we bought toys for various local charities, the hospital A & E, gave money towards the new building the local playgroup were buying, etc. A lot of people feel generous at Christmas and are happy to give to a good cause.
Perhaps the OP could suggest to the school that they support something local one year and something overseas the next.

If you look at the US website of Samaritan's Purse/Operation Christmas Child, it is made absolutely clear that the shoeboxes are given out as the first step in a process aimed at converting as many children to Christianity as possible.

See the page on the Samaritan's Purse website, The Greatest Journey.

The boxes are distributed during an event with talks about the Christian message, children are given gospel booklets, and pressured to sign up for a follow-up 'discipleship programme'.

If people putting together shoeboxes are aware of that and happy with that, then fine. But IMO OCC is being deceptive when they just portray the shoeboxes as a nice gesture for children in need at Christmas, rather than a tool for evangelism.

And I would guess very few Christians in the UK would be entirely happy with Franklin Graham's particular brand of evangelism, let alone all the Muslim/Hindu/atheist parents at schools which participate in the scheme.

There are much, much better charities to support, at Christmas and at other times.

Quicklookbusy - please have a look at the website I linked to. It is not 'just a leaflet', it is lots of material in the local language plus a whole system to get the children in to the church.

The ones that DS helps with go to orphanages in the Ukraine; they used to go to Bosnia when that was war torn. So far as I am aware (having googled the website) they don't have a Christian message inserted although the charity that organises them is Christian; they are distributed directly by that charity to the children. The charity asks for things that will be useful, as well as fun - so soap, toothbrush and paste hats and scarves as well as toys and sweets but no books. If a child has fun seeing what s/he gets out of that, like my DS and his presents and stocking, then great.

But we also do the buy a child a gift scheme run at the local shopping centre, which is tangible too.

Well most of our DC have been encouraged to believe a big fat bearded man in a red suit gives them presents at christmas.

If I were a mum in a poor country I would love the fact my DC received a box of presents, tat or not tat. I wouldn't be worried about a leaflet with a load of fairy stories in it.

Based only on the fact that flying a box of 'tat' half way around the world is a ridiculous method of distributing charity, I wont do this. However, for children, the act of physically collecting and packaging a box of things for less fortunate children is a brilliant idea which makes them think about others. I wonder if a similar, localised scheme for, eg, children in care would be a good idea?

Spendthrift - they had their knuckles wrapped in the UK for putting the religious literature in the box, so they now hand the box to the child, with the literature on top of the box

Any boxes they send that come from the US have the literature inserted inside

The whole point of the boxes is to give them an evangelising opportunity.

MmeLindor that is one area that concerns me, the poster in the thread I mentioned had a similar thing happen, but said that in her case, as the distribution was advertised, no discrimination was made and any children turning up were given a shoebox. I think that is something that could be administered in a better way.

Longwayround As far as I am aware, the shoebox contents are looked over, and allocated to a region/distribution area, so boxes containing warm clothing would be sent to places with a colder climate and so on.

I am not sure how true this is, we all know large organisations, even charities can lie, I can only hope I suppose. It did give a great message to my DD though, who was very eager to make up a box of gifts for a little girl who didnt have as much as her, and would love to receive some presents. That is how I explained it to her, and she totally took it on board.

Agree with exexpat the differences between the US and UK websites is huge. Unless the two organisations are run on a completely different basis, and I'd very much doubt that, it's very clear what the aims are.

fluffy the box my son received in his private nursery school came from a child in Wales and had a leaflet and wasn't sealed...it doesn't always go according to the publicised information on their procedures. Unfortunately.

(the leaflet was IN it, I meant to say)

Gosh just lookes at the two websites and agree the difference is huge. That USA site is scarry.

Until someone else comes up with an idea to physically give something to a child, I would still do it.

sorry scary

Fluffy

I personally won't do Samaritan's purse or Operation Christmas Child, for the reasons you and OP give - but the organisations vary in what they specifically do or don't do. That's why I googled the one that DS is engaged in.. It's still not an economic form of giving and perhaps the school that the OP's DC attends could go down another route - Good Gifts, for example, have lots of great ideas.

But I do believe in trying to make poor kids feel a bit better, just as I have also packed specific gifts for UK prisoners and UK women in refuges. If I ever end up in prison or a refuge, some new soap and a flannel might make me feel a bit better.

Quick - there are lots of things that give stuff to children that don't involve evangelical nonsense. Lots of people on here have mentioned the Rotary scheme, or things for refuges, or collections for orphanages in Romania etc; my local paper collects toys every year for distribution to local children in need.

However, most reputable charities don't organise shoebox-style collections for children in Africa or elsewhere in underdeveloped countries because a) there are much more important uses for donations there, like life-saving medicine, clean water, mosquito nets etc; and b) the cost and effort involved in distributing thousands of shoeboxes is completely disproportionate to the benefit (unless you have an ulterior motive, like evangelism).

Perhaps you could make a physical donation to a UK or European charity, and give some money to an overseas one instead?

A couple of alternatives Backpack Project or Rotary Shoebox

We've done the Rotary one this year.

does anyone know with the distribution what happens if more dc turn up at churches or wherever to collect the advertised shoeboxes or if there are more dc in the schools receiving them than there are packages to go around? How do you decide who gets them and who doesn't? Fist come, first served and some dc just stand and watch others getting them or how does this work?

sorry particularly unintelligible post from me but the gist is : how is it handled if there are not enough shoeboxes to go around the dc waiting to receive them?

Quick so you are saying that just because people are living in poverty, they should be grateful for whatever they get, with no thought for morals or ethics?

To the people saying that we should shut up and stop moaning/being offended, don't you see that we're not just being overly PC and pedantic? We're not just wading in for the fun of the fight. Sending Christian material into countries where Christianity is not the national religion has the potential to be HUGELY damaging and dangerous.

Stop being so over-sentimental and actually think about things from all viewpoints.