Operation Christmas Child info falling on deaf ears......

[MadreInglese]

Following on from my thread here
I spoke to the headmaster and the secretary at school about Samaritans Purse and gave them a load of bumpf to read about it, news articles and the like, along with some alternative suggestions that I got from MN.

They ooohed and ahhhed and said they hadn't realised and of course they would look into alternatives and how awful, yadda yadda.

Lo and behold, DD came home on Friday with an Operation Christmas Child leaflet! I told her we're not doing it and why, and that she and I could do something ourselves this year for our local childrens' hospice instead.

I'm so annoyed that they've ignored all the info and gone ahead anyway. I feel like handing out info at the school gates because I just think that people will give boxes because they don't know the full story of what happens with them.

DD was horrified when I told her, and I have a feeling that she'll be telling all her friends so I'll be in trouble I bet....

Have to go to a farking pta thing tonight and sit smiling with them both, will take a lot of restraint for me not to mention something about it.

Rant over, thankyou for listening

I've been sent the leaflet from both the DC's new schools and was vaguely aware that there was some controversy over the scheme.

Had a read through the leaflet and it says that all items should be new due to import regulations. This contradicts what DD has been told at her school ie. that part of the idea is to pass on something of hers. So I'm now a bit confused about the whole thing atm.

for me at the end of the day there are many other charities who do excellent work with children who do not use their charitable works as a method for evangelising
I would rather my money went to them

TMMJ, that is why it is so insidious. They are targetting the most vulnerable, not in order to help them physically, but in order to win their souls.

Given the number of charities available, if you make an informed decisions to support this one, then that is of course fine. I just don't think that everyone is aware of the main motive.

Maybe you could suggest an alternative, MadreInglese, such as the Rotary Club Shoebox scheme. It seems to be non-religious, from their website and they actively state they are nothing to do with Operation Christmas.

It's the hidden alterior motive that I'm uncomfortable with, especially as there are other charities who do similar work without the underlying religious motives. I feel SP are taking advantage of children in need, and that shouldn't be how the 'word of god' is spread, surely?

I just think it's irresponsible of the school to give out these leaflets and promote Operation Christmas Child without giving parents the full facts.

Thanks Suedonim, I did give them loads of alternative links we got from MN.

The BHA slao have some alternative suggestions here.

Ah, sorry, I hadn't seen that thread. That makes it worse that the school isn't looking at an alternative when you've given them the info.

IKWYM about speaking out at the PTA but what's the worst that can happen? - you're banned from any more PTA meetings!

LOL @ banned from PTA! I'd get so much spare time back.....

LadyMuck - thanks for the US site link

Can someone precis the issues with it, please?

"Boys and girls are offered a Gospel storybook when they receive their shoe box gifts. They later have an opportunity to enroll in a follow-up Bible study program."

They use the shoe boxes filled with gifts as a tool to help convert children to Christianity

The issue is that in the UK they do not mention the bible stories or study program
It's marketed as you giving stuff to needy kids

I'm so glad others are raising this with their schools. DS's school is collecting boxes for OCC this year and I emailed the headmaster to alert him to the fact that the aid OCC distributes usually comes with religious literature attached (and that there are plenty of examples of pressure being bought to bear on recipients of the boxes to attend religious "training"). His reaction was hostile to say the least. I've told him we won't be doing a box but will donate to another charity instead. There are so many worthy charities which don't attach any conditions to the aid they dispense and they would be able to do more good work if people diverted the time and money they put into OCC to these other charities, religious or otherwise. OCC/Samaritan's Purse have a very well oiled PR machine though - as well as our school and no doubt others in the area participating, our local paper has contained glowing articles about OCC for the past three weeks.

It makes me furious that children in such vulnerable situations are being manipulated in this way. And OCC doesn't restrict itself to attempting to convert Muslins and Hindus - this website www.inminds.co.uk/occ.html cites examples of Samaritan's Purse aggressively targetting Catholics for conversion.

A UK (strictly Welsh I think) couple started doing a shoebox appeal for children in Romanian orphanages in 1990, which prove to be very popular and quickly grew. In 1993 a US christian organisation jumped on the bandwagon (iirc the charity is run by Dr Billy Graham's son). However they have viewed the parcels as primarily an evangelistic tool - it is a good way to share the gospel. The UK and US presentations of the objectives of Operation Christmas Child are quite different, with the US site being much more upfront about the aims of the program.

Given that the main aim of the charity is to spread the gospel rather than to relieve hardship, it does also mean that not all the recipients of the shoeboxes will be as hard-up as you might imagine. See here where a MNer's child received one of these shoeboxes last year.

There are schemes being run where the primary aim is to give comfort. This scheme is being run primarily to spread the Gospel, but it appears that not everyone is aware of that.

Samaritans Purse also run the Turn on the Tap campaign which my children's school are supporting. I am at the moment in email discussions with the head. At first, after her own research, she said they would discontinue their support forthwith for this and OCC, but did a u-turn after speaking to the lady that organises the boxes.

By telling the head that no religious literature is placed in the boxes (so omitting to mention the Gospel story book that is distributed alongside), saying that they would make it clear that Samaritans Purse are a Christian charity (so not their full title of missionary evangelical christian group) and that they did not push their beliefs (well they are more subtle and insiduous) the shoebox lady's half-truths have convinced the head that they are a good cause. Aaagh!

MadreInglese, I've just written to our head teacher about this, explaining why my ds won't be taking part. I did loads of internet searching and reading, and the most useful and reasonable report I found was here.

It is a report written for Derbyshire SACRE (the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education - every Local Education Authority has their own advisory council who oversee the teaching of Religious Education,explicit and implicit, their school policies and schemes of work etc). Derbyshire SACRE had had enquiries from a few school governors asking about Samaritan's Purse and this was the report the advisory council looked at. I copied and pasted it into 'word' and included it with my letter. Now I wait and see what the response is.....

British Humanist Association suggestions for charities that do not preach with their gifts.
I am not a humanist, but I do not agree with the sneaky way that some of the evangelical charities hide their methods from the children who are innocently preparing gifts.

I too am confused about this. Last week DD's school had a woman in from OCC to talk about the boxes.

This woman actually distributed the boxes in Serbia last year and showed DD's class photos of the kids receiving their boxes and told them exactly who had got the gifts and what was inside the boxes that they liked best and all about the kids and how they had nothing etc.

She is going back to the same orphanage this year to give the children their boxes again.

DD came home really fired up and keen to do one. But was this lady not telling the truth then?

Do I say to DD 'oh sorry, that lady isn't actually going to give that child (who isn't really an orphan) your box, and if she is, she's going to tell it to believe in the baby Jesus first?'

Isn't it better to have something than nothing?

Am torn!

Merrylegs - your conscience tussle is why the organisation is so successful. I obviously don't know the real answers but this is how I would imagine it will be....

• yes, your daughter's box will be given to a little girl, and she will be delighted by it, and you, your dd and her will all be filled with a genuine sense of well-being and joy at giving and receiving. And for some people that is the bottom line.

• the lady from OCC has probably given the same assembly to numerous schools, so I doubt if your box will go to that exact orphanage in Serbia, but I don't doubt that it will go there, and will be given to a grateful child.

• I also don't doubt that Samaritan's Purse, the evangelical charity organising the distribution, and who have trained your OCC lady, will be working with the orphange, and their main aim is conversion.

• I don't doubt that the little girl will be asked, at some stage, to join in prayer, or come along to a bible studies group, or learn about Jesus (especially if she is a Muslim Serb, or Catholic, or Serbian Orthodox) and the children will be more open to it, because it's the lovely people who gave them the boxes of toys.

• She may even end up being converted by these lovely people into a born-again Christian, and as an orphan will have lost her cultural heritage, and as I see it will have been manipulated by an organisation who took advantage of her vulnerable state and young age.

Lots of people will stop thinking about it at the 'child getting the box' bit, and that's fine. I am not happy with it, knowing that Samaritan's Purse openly say that ?These gift filled shoeboxes provide powerful tools the local churches can use to evangelise people in its own community...". I would much rather the orphanage she lives in was given aid by an organisation who provide help with no strings attached, and have a genuine interest in the little girl's health and wellbeing at the heart of what they do, rather than her 'soul'. There are loads of ways of supporting other charities who are doing just that. So that is what I choose to do.

Can I just add, re the Rotary scheme that I have worked with some of the charities there - I can vouch that Hope & Homes do a brilliant job in Baia Mare, ditto Spurgeons and the Prison Fellowship in Cluj. I don't know People to People, but have heard of them. You won't get any religious guff from any of these, to the best of my knowledge, although I will caveat this with the fact that I left Romania in 2001, but I see no reason why they should have suddenly become religious.

Oh and I know it is less fun for children, but shoe boxes filled with stuff for old people went down really well - thick old lady tights, razors and shaving gel for men, nice soap, talc, warm socks were all gratefully received.