The Samaritan’s Purse project Operation Christmas Child collects shoeboxes—filled with school supplies, hygiene items, fun toys and notes of encouragement—and delivers them to children in need around the world to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way.
Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project of its kind, has collected and delivered more than 135 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 150 countries and territories. For many of these children, the gift-filled shoebox is the first gift they have ever received.
In 2016, Operation Christmas Child hopes to collect enough shoebox gifts to reach 12 million children. More than 11.2 million children were reached in 2015.
Shoebox gifts are collected in the U.S., Australia, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Spain and the U.K.
More than 500,000 volunteers worldwide are involved in collecting, shipping and distributing shoebox gifts. More than with more than 150,000 of those in the United States.
Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism provide aid to victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty, famine and persecution.
Individuals, families, churches and groups fill empty shoeboxes with school supplies, hygiene items, notes of encouragement and fun toys, such as a doll or soccer ball. During National Collection Week (Nov. 14 – 21, 2016), Samaritan’s Purse will collect the gift-filled shoeboxes at some 4,500 drop-off locations in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
Not sure how to pack a shoebox? Just watch this video:
You can find out how to pack a box and where to drop it off by visiting samaritanspurse.org/occ.
Participants can follow their box online to discover where in the world their gift is delivered by using the donation form found at samaritanspurse.org/occ.
