To want to know why Mumsnetters are so against the christmas shoeboxes?

[MrsWinnibago]

As far as I can tell, it's due to the religious nature of Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan's Purse....from previous threads I've seen that people resent the fact that the volunteers pray with the kids and include religious leaflets in the boxes.

But is this really enough reason to not send a box? I can't help but think, if my kids were in a war torn country and had nothing...no toys or anything...they'd rather hear a few prayers and get their box than NOT hear a few prayers and get nothing.

Or am I missing something?

Our school have always done this. I have felt uncomfortable about it for a while. Have spoken to the chair of the pta and chair of governers last year. I am going to suggest either an alterative scheme or raising cash for shelterbox of similar this year. If they don't go for it I will get my children to chose an oxfam unwrapped type item instead.

Oh and I am a Christian but don't like aggressive evangelism. I don't think God would approve.

mrswinnebago that's a very odd op.
People don't need a reason to 'not send a box'. We are all free to support whatever charity we feel is best, or indeed none at all.
Speaking personally, I am not going to contribute to any organisation that evangelises, because I don't agree with it. As it happens, none of my kids schools have ever participated in these schemes, but if they did I wouldn't contribute.

If you wanted to do something similar for people in need nearer home, that had no religious connotations, then you could see what local charities are doing shoeboxes for the homeless.

The company I worked for collected shoeboxes the other year and these were donated to Shelter who distributed them to children and teenagers who were living in B&B hostels and similar. I am not sure whether it is organised nationally or whether there are just local initiatives for this.

I object because it is colonialist, paternalistic bullshit very inefficient giving.

I prefer the Mary's Meals model which enables children to go to school, either by feeding them or by providing school supplies.

Last year our headteacher proposed Operation Christmas Child; I wrote explaining my objections, mostofof which centred on the inappropriateness of a community school supporting an evangelical agency. The matter was swiftly dropped and alternative fundraising pursued instead.

FatLazy it is not an "odd op" at all. The boxes have been the subject of MANY thread on here over the years. It's more odd that you have misunderstood a very obvious post.

MrsHathaway that's a great idea...the Mary's Meals I mean and I also like their Backpack project! here

It's odd to me mrs Winnebago. Surely you can understand that a) charity donations are a matter if personal choice, and b) many people look into these things a little deeper than you would appear to .

I don't support OCC - even though it is heavily pushed in my school.

My reasons are based on the actions of the Samaritans Purse the main organisations. I researched a lot before I 'jumped on the negative bandwagon' and found out that in a hurricane damaged country the Samaritans Purse took out equipment to help re home a lot of the countries citizens who were already religious but not evangelical Christians. I can't recall the country or their religion - I think it was Catholic.

The reports were vast from different sources stating that if the locals did not 'show evidence' of conversion to them they did not recieve any of the aid at all - which was basic materials to build shelters - I was horrified by this attitude.

I will say if my tutor group wish to support as a group I will assist but I do not and will not put my hand in my pocket.

The Aquaaid and Back pack ones seem a much better option - have never located a local Rotary at the right time to support.

FatLazy no...I wanted to be reminded of the issue people had with Samaritan's Purse. Stop looking for an "issue" where there IS none please.

I've worked in homelessness and the like for many years. Well meaning people, who want to help, give their children a message and feel good often wander into a minefield. In one shelter I worked in, we used to get very well-meaning Easter eggs and Christmas presents for people with a VERY Christian card attached. Our organisation was 'Christian' but at the time, none of the front-line staff was and the clients were more likely to be Muslim than Christian.

What do people suggest; just give the gifts and cards to the non-Muslims; remove the cards and give to everyone; not give them; refuse them altogether; give to everyone (with Muslims receiving cards which said things like, 'Jesus loves you'). It's a nightmare. They meant well but didn't really understand the practicalities of what we do.

Much better to give money to a charity that knows what it is doing, spends the money wisely and doesn't evangelise. Volunteer. Campaign for better services, particularly MH and addictions.

Locally we have an organisation that asks for presents for children in poverty here. So a child might ask for (my one last year) 'a science book or anything about science for a 14 year old boy'. It's really good.

MrsTerry last year I did give to the local women's refuge. I called them and asked first and they said they always needed toys and clothes (new) so I bought extra on Amazon. I just want to give gifts. I do give money through the year but think when my DD is only 6, it's a very "real" way for her to see how much she has to be grateful for. A home that's warm and dry, school, water, toys, clothes....

I get a little twitchy when people do things to teach their children the value of things in this way. I absolutely understand why and it is commendable. However, we used to get a lot of people, always around Christmas, coming to the shelter and giving stuff to us with their children in tow. It made the clients feel like zoo animals.

I know that's not what you are doing. It's hard to teach them the value of things without othering the people you are talking about; children in the majority world; people in refuges. I don't know what the answer is but I don't think it is sending a box of stuff.

I opted out of the school's OCC last year, and instead arranged a donation to our local refuge. I emailed my child's class saying that I was doing this and would they like to donate anything.

I ended up with a living room full of toys and clothes! People were incredibly generous, and the kids helped to sort out their own old baby toys and clothes to give away, which I think is a good lesson. And I explained (a bit) about domestic abuse and how some children have to leave their homes.

The person who came to pick it up said it was brilliant, as so many families arrive with nothing - not even spare pants or a toothbrush, and so they always need lots of basic clothes etc as well as all the toys for Xmas presents.

When we sorted my Mums house she had cupboards full of linen - bed clothes, nearly new towels etc which were all in good condition. Instead of taking them to the charity shop we opted to donate to a Womens Refuge - via my step mum. There were loads of childrens sets as well.

We had a lovely letter back from them saying how grateful they were as bedding is one of the thing they stuggle to supply to families who literally get up and leave.

I also sent a lot of my childhood toys to them.

MrsPratchet I would NEVER tag my DC round a shelter or something.

Growing up, our church did something similar, but the boxes went to charities to hand out to families staying at women's shelters.

Mary's Meals do backpacks and are not religious.

All those saying about the aggressive religious aspects and respecting culture etc. is to misunderstand the reason for evangelism. They honestly believe that unbelievers will go to hell. It is not just a scare tactic. If you believe such things and have any care for other people then surely you have to try and convert them? You can't 'respect their beliefs' because you really think that will send them to hell! We are also talking eternal life here so the difficulties it might cause to this life are not counted. This is true for a lot of religions and religious factions. The difficulty is in how they try to convert.

A friend of mine organises a toy sale twice a year, DCs sell the things they no longer want. They set their own prices which can be very sweet - the scabby teddy they really want to keep has a £50 price tag (and then of course goes back home) and the totally rubbish must-have £60 Furby goes on for £1.

The DCs get to keep half of what they make, and half goes to a specific charity. I really like that as an approach.

Bilberry - yes, that's exactly why evangelism is such a scary thing as it seems to wipe out all logical thought and at the very least, creates angst and distress where there needn't be any.

I don't think anyone has meant to shoot you down - but you did ask for reasons why lots of people do not support the charity scheme in question, and you got a lot of personal views back, quite a varied spectrum by comparison with your original opinion on why you thought it was. I think this could easily be the case if you asked about other potentially contentious/opinion dividing charities too, say, connected explicitly to other faiths, or even some that are led and funded by big business. You have a lot of alternatives now and as you know well, there is plenty of need to respond to, both close to home and elsewhere in the world.

Mary's Meals did a nice scheme where you bought a mug for a tenner (?) - which got you and a child in Africa a mug and it was also enough to feed that child breakfast every morning at school - they would use that mug to have their breakfast from (a healthy local millet porridge type meal I think in most cases which gave them a really good start to the day and enabled them to go to school in many cases).

It was good because you got a reminder every time you used your mug that you'd bought breakfast for a child for a year.

We did the mary's meals backpacks at school last year --having taken 3 years to persuade school to drop Samaritans purse!) and it worked much better, many more people wanted to contribute (including many non Christians who felt aggrieved when they discovered they had been supplying evangelical conversion prizes previously!).

One of the best things about it was that people could donate as much or as little as they wanted - no demands for a full shoebox plus delivery charges. So some people sent in entire backpacks, others there were children who managed to save up their pocket money for a pencil or two or could donate reasonable second hand things. They ended ip with a much greater volume of things to send off than they ever had for the shoe boxes.

And it was done through a Christian charity so ticked the Christmas feel good/appropriate factor - not least as they were doing it with a true Christian spirit - giving and not expecting anything back in return.