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 |
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.
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.
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.
