CHILDREN in Vietnam and the Pacific Islands affected by war, poverty and natural disasters will have a merrier Christmas thanks to the donations of Orange residents throughout the year.
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Orange volunteers Robyn Hicks and Jenny Abbott co-ordinate the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child in the Orange area and recently travelled to the organisation’s processing centre in Sydney to help check donations from across the state for prohibited items before they were shipped overseas.
Mrs Hicks said each shoebox contained something to wear, a personal item, toys and something to cuddle but could not contain anything representing war, religious items, anything that would melt or anything breakable. There were 110,000 shoeboxes sent from NSW.
The women worked with 40 other volunteers at the centre where 12,000 boxes were packed in a week to go to Vietnam.
“Jenny and I were privileged to go to Vietnam in February this year on a distribution trip and saw firsthand the delight these shoeboxes brought to the children, their school and community,” she said.
This year there were 1019 shoeboxes of donations from Orange, Blayney, Millthorpe, Molong, Manildra Cargo and Cudal, which Dwyers transported to Sydney for free.
Mrs Hicks has been participating in Operation Christmas Child for about 15 years.
“I just like to see children thrive and be able to do the best they can,” she said. “Some of these children are in situations where they have lost everything and need know there’s someone out there that loves them.”
tanya.marschke@fairfaxmedia.com.au
