Hello friends! Today we wanted to share with you how YOU can make a difference in peoples lives around the world! Check out last year’s post here.
Operation Christmas Child is a program that is organized by Samaritan’s Purse to give gifts to less fortunate kids across the world. Over the past 24 years, this campaign has helped over 124 million children. Last year, over 700,000 boxes were collected in Canada and over 11 million worldwide! They are delivered to countries like Senegal, Uruguay, Ukraine and many more.
All you need to do is grab a shoe box (any regular sized shoe box or plastic shoe bin), fill it with new toys, school supplies, hygiene products and things that kids would love to get, along with a personal note & picture. and drop it off at your local drop off location. National collection week is November 14-20 this year 🙂
Samaritan’s Purse is a Christian organization that has been providing spiritual and physical aid to people around the world since 1973. I have seen boxes and instruction pamphlets at the Dollar Tree dollar store or you can pack one online here.
I packed 3 shoe boxes for girls ages 5-9. For each one, I put in:
- $7 for shipping
- a card including a picture of me
- toothbrush
- comb
- bar of soap
- face clothes
- tissues
- stickers
- pencil sharpener
- colouring book
- pencils
- balloons
- hair clips
- headbands
- hat
- underwear
- socks
- and I will include a skipping rope
Do NOT include things like:
- toothpaste
- candy that can melt
- things that may leak
NOTE: Some of the kids have short coarse hair so things like wide tooth combs and hair bands or clips work better than hair elastics. If you pack pencils, add a sharpener so they can re-sharpen them. Some kids live in lean-to type huts that are exposed to rain so less paper products is better. Having games (skipping ropes, marbles, balls) is really useful for kids and their siblings.
Because of the way things (crayons, stickers, pencils, etc) are packaged, it was easy to pack 3 boxes for around $12 each, not including $7 for shipping. A small price that makes a HUGE difference in these kids lives. 😉
If you pack a box make sure to send us pictures on Snapchat and Twitter @basicbloggerss !