those christmas 'shoe box for needy children' appeals, are there any that are legit?

[lucykate]

dd has been given a leaflet about one from school, but on researching it on the web, it is not what it seems and has had quite bad press. dd really wants to do it though, does anyone have any suggestions of a reputable one please?

Link Romania is supposed to be a good (and ethically sound) one. And I think the Rotary Club may organise one.

At our school we have done Operation Christmas Child boxes through Samaritans Purse for several years. AFAIK it's very worthwhile and we always get feedback about children receiving gifts for the first time ever in their lives.
here

HTH

More about Samaritans Purse here and here

Personally I'd go for a scheme that did not have an evangelical element to the distribution of aid.

support our soldiers

\lin{http://www.rotary1280.org/shoebox\the rotary club}

sorry

support our soliders

Oh, AA that has really upset me. I had no idea .....thought we were all doing a really nice thing

My charges school did one by the rotary club

it didnt even occur to me that it sould be anything other than legit

of FGS meant

the rotary club

the rotary one AFAIK legit

Our school used to do Operation Christmas Child, but this year are doing Link Romania. I think several parents were unhappy with Christmas Child.

Personally I wouldn't do Christmas child because of the evangelical aspect. But we are going to do the Link Romania this year.

Phillip and Fearn on This Morning usually do one.

thanks for all the suggestions

aa - it is the samaritans one that dd has a leaflet for, i'm quite cross with the school for handing the leaflets out, i don't think they have done their research. as soon as i saw it, i remembered it being discussed on mn last year and about that some of these schemes were a bit dodgy.

in fact, i'm sure last year a mn who lived in europe (can't remember exactly where or who it was) posted to say her dc's came home from school with a shoe box full of gifts, and she was really surprised they had been given one as they were not really underprivileged

This is that thread you mentioned, lucykate.

yes!!, that's the one, you know when you kind of half remember reading something and are not sure if you are remembering it right. as soon as dd handed me the leaflet, it was a vague memory of that thread that came into my head.