Topic: ShoeBox - Operation Christmas Child

[cambourne7]

Hi Guys,

We are all big hearted here and we were talking at home about what we can do to pass on good chear later in the year when we will be 2 busy to do anything.

After a little googling i found the Samaritans Purse, they send shoeboxes to kids in need.

In 2006, over 1.24million shoe boxes were distributed to needy children in the countries shown below:

Total  1,247,395
Armenia  28,945
Belarus  201,124 
Bosnia  79,400
Hungary  10,959
Kosovo 64,956
Kyrgyzstan 89,814
Liberia 12,631
Mozambique  22,582
Romania  253,982
Serbia  219,385
Swaziland  39,798
Ukraine  223,810

I though that i would pass on the details as they have collection points all over the UK

http://www.samaritanspurse.uk.com/occ/yes-nos.asp

Having been spring cleaning i have found a large bag of teddies, a bag of airplane kits with socks and toiletries and i am sure i can find other stuff to make about 10 of these up easly. Might even add some seeds maybe some of supersprouts pumpkin or some other edable crops with instructions?

Cambourne7

[manicscousers]

I think it's a great idea, cam..where do you get the shoeboxes from,
 in the past, I've kept the ones they gave me at the shops, not bought any shoes this year,
we used to put packs of colouring pencils, rubbers, gloves, hats, toothpaste and brush, soap, flannel, depending where they were going
we go down the 'buy a relative an allotment ' route now, doing it again this year, and a big bag of seed from oxfam  :)

[cambourne7]

hehe great idea as well :)

I am going to pop into a shoe shop and ask for some empty ones :)

[sarah]

my kids primary school do this every year and they make up quite a few boxes. i havent looked at the link but  i guess its probably the same charity. we make up ones for children and put on the top wether it is a for a boy or girl and what age group. such a simple idea that can make such a special difference to someone at christmas.

[Sprinkle]

This so called "charity" is a particularly horrible form of religious indoctrination. It's run by "radical" (read "rabid") American Evangelicals.
The so called "gifts" are only given if the recipient signs up to, and participates in, their nasty form of "Christianity".   

For several years now, LEA's all over the country have been advising schools to avoid this scandal, and, if they want to do something special at Christmas, to find a reputable charity rather than these vultures preying on innocent and vulnerable people.

[Trixiebelle]

Sprinkle! I'm not quite so vehement about the Samaritans Purse Shoebox appeal as you, but I do have reservations about 'gifts with strings'!

This site has some interesting information about the concept which you can take or leave as you wish.

http://www.geocities.com/occcriticism/

I understand that there are similar (secular) charities that run schemes like this and personally, I would be more willing to donate to them than the Samaritan's Purse.

Trixie XX

[Trixiebelle]

Just read my last post from yesterday. I sound like a real GRUMP don't I  ::)

[Grandma]

No, Trix. Wise words.

I would advise everyone thinking of donating to this organisation to read, in full, the link you supplied. It's quite an eye-opener.

[greenscrump]

thanks for the opposing view guys, I'll be more aware of where my shoe boxes end up now.  Does anyone know of any non evangelical scary b****** schemes?

[Sprinkle]

Sprinkle! I'm not quite so vehement about the Samaritans Purse Shoebox appeal as you...

Trixie XX

Trixiebelle, And of course all good folk here...
I am sorry to have been quite so spittle-flecked about this particular topic but, as an active member of The National Secular Society, we constantly monitor so called "charities" which operate under a religious umbrella.

This one was "outed" a few years ago but, unfortunately, it still raises its ugly head occasionally.

If I had one of the "signatures" that folk have, it would be:
Do what you want
Feel good
Help someone
Feel better

...

[Melbourne12]

thanks for the opposing view guys, I'll be more aware of where my shoe boxes end up now.  Does anyone know of any non evangelical scary b****** schemes?

I'm sure that Sprinkle's National Secular Society run something suitable.  Although, pace the alleged Islamophobia of Operation Christmas Child, I see that last week's speech by Richard Dawkins to the National Secular Society contained the phrase “the worldwide menace of Islamic terrorism and oppression”.

So perhaps the NSS and OCC are as bad as each other?

[cambourne7]

eak i did not realise what was going on here.

[Barnowl]

thanks for the opposing view guys, I'll be more aware of where my shoe boxes end up now.  Does anyone know of any non evangelical scary b****** schemes?

...., I see that last week's speech by Richard Dawkins to the National Secular Society contained the phrase “the worldwide menace of Islamic terrorism and oppression”.

So perhaps the NSS and OCC are as bad as each other?

Hi Melbourne12,

Do you really think that Islamic terrorism and oppression isn't worldwide and isn't a menace?

Just because the vast majority of Muslims aren't a problem doesn't make the statement untrue and I have to say I don't think the majority are not doing enough to keep their house in order. After all, isn't it about 400 years since Christian fundamentalist went round killing people who disagreed with their religion? (There is Northern Ireland of course, but I suspect that was more about power at the street as well as national level than genuine religious differences.)

[Melbourne12]

....

Hi Melbourne12,

Do you really think that Islamic terrorism and oppression isn't worldwide and isn't a menace?

Just because the vast majority of Muslims aren't a problem doesn't make the statement untrue and I have to say I don't think the majority are not doing enough to keep their house in order. After all, isn't it about 400 years since Christian fundamentalist went round killing people who disagreed with their religion? (There is Northern Ireland of course, but I suspect that was more about power at the street as well as national level than genuine religious differences.)

Whether I do think that or not is entirely immaterial.  Indeed, whether it is true or not, irrespective of what I personally think, is equally immaterial.

Sprinkle dams this "Samaritan's Purse" charity as "radical" and "rabid" evos, who practice "a particularly horrible form of religious indoctrination".  He goes on to say that "the so called "gifts" are only given if the recipient signs up to, and participates in, their nasty form of "Christianity"".   
and
"For several years now, LEA's all over the country have been advising schools to avoid this scandal"

Now, as far as I can research it, this seems to me to be both an exaggeration and a distortion.

On the plus side, what OCC do is to provide well over a million children with a box of Christmas gifts when they would otherwise get nothing.  On the minus side, arguably, is that they deliver an evangelical Christian pamphlet alongside the pressies.

I can see no evidence that the gifts are tied to the recipient signing anything, nor participating in anything.

Furthermore, although it is unclear how many LEAs are advising schools under their control to avoid OCC, it seems that the educational establishment object not to the Christian pamphlet so much as the statement by Franklin Graham about Islam being a wicked religion.  That contravenes their diversity policy, so although it appears not to be endorsed by Samaritan's Purse, the charity is nonetheless associated with the statement, and therefore to be proscribed.

All I wanted to point out is that the National Secular Society is happy to publish an even more extreme criticism of Islam, so, presumably, is just as blameworthy as Samaritan's Purse.

And I'd be quite interested in whether the NSS thinks that the good old CofE is also filled with "rabid" people practising a "nasty" religion.  I suspect that they do, if the good Dawkins is anything to go by.