SHOEBOX SCHEMES
The Trustees would like to make it clear that we are in no way connected with any other similar Shoebox Scheme.
There has been some recent adverse publicity regarding the ‘Operation Christmas Child’ Shoebox Scheme.
We are aware that some Rotarians and especially some Inner Wheel Clubs tend to confuse the issue by assuming
that all Shoebox Schemes are the same.
This is not the case. The Rotary Shoebox Scheme is completely independent of any other scheme and is completely administered and run by the Rotary Trustees.
Rotary Shoebox Newsletter March 2009
Rotary Shoebox Logo - Children Helping Children

See the BBC TV News report on the Rotary Shoebox Scheme - December 08 with
Video at the bottom
LINK

Rotary International Logo
  An RIBI Project
   
  Registered Charity: 1091507 
 

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Chepstow Rotary win PR prize with this display of boxes

It is a wall constructed of Shoeboxes by Chepstow Rotary club and displayed at District 1100 conference House of Friendship at the end of March this year.

The bottoms of the boxes were painted so that the boxes could still be used afterwards.


Donations

With the economic problems in general that the country seems to be facing these days, the dramatic rise in fuel costs over the past twelve months has presented us in particular with some headaches. Added to this, increased road tax and insurance costs are forcing us to look again at our finances.
While many Rotary Clubs use the Shoebox Scheme there are others who support us in principle but who do not actively fill boxes.
If yours is such a Club, then please consider making a donation to help towards the cost of delivering the box gifts to Eastern Europe.
We do have individual schools throughout the country who fill Rotary boxes but are not connected to a particular Rotary Club. They find it hard to contribute fully towards the cost of delivering their filled boxes.

Perhaps you could consider sponsoring such a school.


Your Shoeboxes being delivered in 2010

Two newspaper reporters recently visited different countries, to see Rotary Shoeboxes being delivered.

Ben Truslove, a reporter with the ‘Melton Mobray Reporter’ visited Romania in January
He visited villages in the hills on the Eastern border between Romania and Moldova. One typical village was Bosia. Here the village now has a tarmac track leading to it thanks to EU money. However, the Mayor of the village told Ben that the EU has made little difference to the living conditions. Despite daytime temperatures of minus five, many children live in homes without windows, while parents struggle to buy food but manage to find money to buy alcohol.
As the shoeboxes were distributed, there was a dazed look on the faces of some of the children but as they realised these gifts of toys were for them, there were beaming smiles
and stilted thank you’s. Ben was both amazed and shocked by the conditions
he found but was left in no doubt as to how important your gifts are to those with so little.

Stephanie Harrison from Horncastle who has previously been to Ukraine to see boxes being delivered was determined to again see this in a different country. At her own expense she travelled out to Albania in late March. Here she met up with our contact Chris Dakas.
At the Mother Teresa Children’s Hospital in the capital Tirana, there were heartbreaking scenes of very sick and terminally ill children in every room off every corridor. Standards of medical care and hygiene are poor and comforts almost non existent. Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe. Without doubt the arrival of the Rotary Shoeboxes spun some rays of light, the children being thrilled to receive their boxes of toys.

A six hour journey south on precarious mountain roads, took us to the coastal region of Saranda close to the Greek border. This region is home to around 2000 gypsies. Here at the village of Cuka, families gathered in an atmosphere of sheer excitement as Rotary Shoeboxes were unloaded from the van. She then travelled over hazardous mountain roads through Macedonia to Kosovo. Here peacekeeping NATO Patrols still operate. In the town of Gjakova, the arrival of the shoeboxes saw children scramble in excited anticipation for the treats in store.

 

Pictures from a delivery in January to the Ukraine


The Rotary Shoebox Scheme is not just for Christmas!

The Scheme

Originally started in District 1280 in 1994, the Rotary Shoebox Scheme was then intended to provide children of Iasi, in north-east Romania with Christmas gifts. Since then, the scheme has become an RIBI International Project and every District in RIBI is involved in this popular Scheme.

Gifts are now sent out throughout the year to many different countries in Central  and Eastern Europe. Toys are especially useful all year round for Birthday presents in the Orphanages, Homes and Hospitals. All age groups, including teenagers, have welcomed the boxes.

In addition to Romania, Shoebox gifts have been delivered to Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia and Kosovo.

Each year we now send around 60,000 Shoeboxes or gifts. SEE RECENT DELIVERIES

The strengths of the Rotary Shoebox Scheme over other similar schemes are:

1 It operates all year round.

2 The boxes are distributed to known contacts

3 We can guarantee that every Shoebox goes to a deserving child or family.

The boxes now travel either overland by lorry, or by sea container. We use the services of International Aid Trust (IAT), a Christian Charity who have a long association with Rotary in the north-west of England and who help with both Transportation and Warehouse storage.

Distribution is always through known contacts.

We are officially tied in with Hope & Homes and regularly supply their foster homes with boxes of gifts.

Spurgeons Child Care have been involved with the scheme since its inception and we deliver to their many children’s homes throughout Romania on a regular basis.

The Rotary Club of Iasi are also regular distributors for us to Orphanages and Children’s Hospitals in the area.

IAT also have some children’s homes and camps in Belarus and Ukraine where we deliver.

Have you tried it yet?

The Shoebox Scheme is easy for clubs to operate and ultimately fulfils the Rotary ethic of individual time involvement. By visiting schools or youth groups to collect the filled boxes, there is an opportunity to address the children about how and to whom the boxes will be delivered. A short explanation of Rotary can easily be slotted in.

The advantage with the scheme is that it can be both a geography and social lesson for the children. However, the main advantage is that it can be a positive way for ‘Children to Help Children.’

Leon MacLeod
PR Rotary Shoebox Scheme

 
The Rotary Shoebox Scheme is sponsored by MyServer