Over 7,200 Christmas boxes were donated to this year’s appeal.
All this year’s Christmas boxes have been checked and packed and at the time of writing, 7,204 presents are in Bulgaria waiting to be unloaded from the truck by local volunteers.
“We’re delighted that our supporters have been able fill up a truck with Christmas presents again”, says Rich Parsons, Operations Manager for House of Opportunity. “Given all that families are having to cope with at the moment, it’s good to see that there is still a strong desire to help those who face a very bleak Christmas indeed. We are really very grateful for the continued support for the Christmas box appeal and we want to thank everybody who made up a box this year”.
Teams of volunteers from businesses, schools, churches and community groups, along with many local families and individuals helped to check and pack the Christmas boxes at River Bourne Community Farm in Salisbury this year. Rich Parsons again, “We set ourselves a target of getting all the boxes checked and packed inside two weeks, and we achieved that thanks to the more 400 volunteers who came and gave their time to help. The whole appeal depends on our ability to make sure that all the presents are good and that there will be no problems with shipping, and we simply could not do that without help. A big, big thank you to all that gave their time for this!”
Donated Christmas boxes will be given out in children’s homes and protected homes for young adults, kindergartens and schools in poor rural and urban areas, Roma communities, refuges, senior citizens homes and refugee centres (especially Ukrainian families), among other places.
You can see your Christmas boxes being distributed by our team on the House of Opportunity Facebook page and YouTube channel from Dec 14th.