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Original poster

Have you heard of Operation Christmas Child and are you doing it?

47 replies

handlemecarefully · 28/10/2004 09:37

If you haven't heard of this charity personally I think its fab.

Basically you prepare shoe boxes full of small Christmas gifts for kids in hospitals, orphanages, refugee camps etc overseas. My NCT tea group always does a couple of boxes every year. Its really rewarding and gives you a warm glow inside imagining the childs pleasure on getting something just for them

The web address is www.samaritanspurse.uk.com (sorry being a luddite I am crap at doing links)

OP posts:

Shimmy21 · 28/10/2004 23:58

Our kids' school does it too and I did 2 boxes the year before last but not last year because of my concerns. I do really like the idea and I found it a very good way of talking to my dss about poverty etc. But the whole christmas thing for children in muslim countries bothers me. I'd prefer to give them boxes for Eid or other festivals. Cultural imperialism sounds a bit pompous and I do recognise that the children will be delighted and benefit from the presents but just uncomfortableabout what's behind it.

Shimmy21 · 29/10/2004 00:00

Our posts crossed Branster. Yours is lovely.

Branster · 29/10/2004 00:03

Shimmy21 I totally agree with you on the cultural differences and bad timing. maybe it's down to the fact that people in a christian country feel more generous before christmas time, therefore it's a good time to collect them...

i just wanted to make one small point here. that you shouldn't feel sorry for these children, they do actually have a wonderful life in different ways and are richer and happier within their soul most of the time. but i'm not generalising on all of them of course.

Aero · 29/10/2004 00:06

KristinaM - have just remembered your thread from (what seems like) ages ago re bfing - was just reminded for some reason and that thread helped me through a difficult time too - obviously you survived - did you manage to carry on bfing? Sorry - didn't mean to hi-jack thread - it's just that I haven't seen (or maybe just haven't noticed) your name for ages on here. I take it you're ok now?

Heathcliffscathy · 29/10/2004 10:32

started reading this thread, thought 'what a great idea, must do this' then clicked onto link:

'Meeting critical needs of victims of war, poverty, famine, disease,
and natural disaster while sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.'

meet their needs, don't make shoving your religion down their throat a proviso of getting presents...there must be a version of this that isn't faith based surely???

Heathcliffscathy · 29/10/2004 10:37

was looking for an alternative as hate to be negative about giving and found this about operation christmas child...sorry but it doesn't sound too good to me...i know the piece is old, but the organisation sounds distinctly dodgy...still looking for an alternative tho...

marialuisa · 29/10/2004 11:19

Don't do this because of concerns over their links to right-wing Evangelical groups in the U.S.
and generally don't feel 100% comfortable about it. I know of 2 R.C. dioceses that have recommended in the strongest terms that their schools do not participate, thus DD's school does not.

oxocube · 29/10/2004 11:23

Another yes and yes

honeyflower · 29/10/2004 14:52

I think Samaritan's Purse, the US-based organisation that runs OCC, is generally well-respected for its humanitarian work. BUT it is part of the Graham family's international evangelical empire.

Whether they put leaflets in the shoeboxes or not is neither here nor there, imho, either way I would not want my kids' generosity compromised by association with that lot.

Completely take branster's point about how great it must be for kids to get a gift just for them - but you don't have to get into bed with Franklin Graham to acheive that...

Hausfrau · 29/10/2004 14:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

yingers74 · 29/10/2004 15:02

have heard of them, nursery has asked us to do it, as yet have not as I keep forgetting but I do plan to.

Branster · 30/10/2004 15:36

I'm not particularly taken with all this evangelical stuff either BUT in this case I figured even if they do get some leaflets in those boxes, do you actually think the kids will be reading them? And even if they do, it wouldn't matter much to them and wouldn't influence them.
I know it's a matter of principle, but I wouldn't go to the trouble of organizing shoe boxes myself, at least this way I know they'll get them.

pixiefish · 30/10/2004 15:39

we do it through school-

alexsmum · 30/10/2004 15:51

there was an article in junior magazine last december about operation christmas child and it followed a team who do drop offs.It was following the team in russia from what i remember and these kids have literally nothing.Some of them were living in the underground heating system of the city,some of them in orphanages ,some of them in really seriously deprived areas of tenements.These children couldn't believe that'all this' was for them.A shoe box filled with little bits and they couldn't get their heads around the idea that they owned it.So what if they get given bible stories with them? If the situation was reversed and we were as poor as these people and our children had nothing, and somebody wanted to give them a small gift accompanied by ,for arguments sake,a story/passage from the koran then I would welcome it.Wouldn't anyone?

pixel · 30/10/2004 16:40

I saw that article in 'Junior' and those children lead pitiful lives. In some areas they risk being shot by the authorities if they come above ground. Can you imagine anyone seeing a little child as vermin?

Anyway, I've just finished filling my boxes. Few of the children can read and my reasoning is that religion causes an awful lot of problems in the world; if in this case it can be doing some good then why not?

Branster · 30/10/2004 23:04

yes alexsmum , these are the extreme cases. it's so, so sad. i was actually reffering to ordinary little children from poor families most often than not living in remote areas. at least they have family love. the ones you talk about...I cannot even describe to you how that makes me feel, and on top of that, street children are lost cases, literally, they will die very young (pnewmonia, drugs used, HIV , tuberculosis, hepatitis, freezing to death, beaten up etc etc) and have absolutely no chance of having a 1/2 normal life.

colditzmum · 30/10/2004 23:13

Have just read some of this thread. How can I do this? Is it being run by any schools? It brought tears to my eyes to think about small children being shot like "vermin" and I really want to do something now. Have bagged up loads of ds's old toys and was going to give them to a charity shop, but this sounds a lot better

alexsmum · 30/10/2004 23:13

so bran,isn't it worth giving these kids a little pleasure, even if it means religion being involved? I cried when I read that article.Our children have so much, and these kids had nothing.I think it hits me harder now than before i had my kids, because you can imagine how it would be if that was your child.
I'm sure that it isn't like a missionary thing with christianity being forced upon children of other faiths.They actually don't allow you to pack anything of a religious nature in the boxes don't they? No miraculous medals then!

alexsmum · 30/10/2004 23:15

colditz mum, it has to be new stuff.There is a web site you can look at to find out what to pack and where to drop your box off.Our local toysr us are collecting this year.

alexsmum · 30/10/2004 23:19

branster i have just reread my message and it sounds like i'm having a go at you, like you had said that it was a bad thing to do.I meant it in a 'you confirm this bran,you've been there'way

Branster · 31/10/2004 11:15

yes alexsmum, as I mentioned in one of my earlier postings, I'm not bothered that much about who is organising these collections because
a)I very much doubt the children would be involed with all the evangelical stuff as a result of it (what is a leaflet?! if ideed they do include those in the boxes, nobody is going to bother reading them, is not going to influence anyone)
b)I haven't pulled myself together so far to organise something simmilar on a much smaller scale with the same benefits so they're doing a better job than me.

so all in all, I'm using them for the end result. there's a saying where I come from ''Befriend the devil whilst you're crossing the bridge''. I do have principles but I am flexible and whith or without my involvement this organisation is going to thrive anyway. What do I care? They do a lot of good as we can see.

carla · 31/10/2004 11:23

I introduced this to dd's nursery when they were little - some of the mums (who didn't realise I'd brought the leaflets in) said they wouldn't be doing it because they didn't know what message it would be sending to the children. But hell, if a child without any toys gets some, I really don't mind. They can choose to ignore the message if they so wish. Now they're both at a (Catholic) school and they organise it every year. And both the girls really enjoy doing it.

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