Shoebox Appeal update

Many thanks to all who contributed their time, effort and resources to this year's Shoebox Appeal which has again been a great success and will be so appreciated by the children and destitute families in the Gomel region of Belarus. Our thanks also go to Feabrex Limited in Gravesend for use of the warehouse at a knockdown price and a chap called Gary who provided his fork lift truck and himself totally free for the morning of loading.

It continues to be amazing where all the goods come from every year and the generosity of the donors. We had donated items superfluous and unwanted from promotional campaigns, which made up 10% of the weight of the load, plus a number of parcels from the Friends of Chernobyl Children, Medway Branch, sent to children and families which they have hosted in this country on various occasions. The total load this year was considerably down on last year in terms of weight but seemed to take up almost as much room.

Typically orphanages in the Gomel region each cater for about 150 to 200 children who live and learn there seven days a week from the age of 4 to 16 or 18 depending on the establishment. These orphans are both genuine orphans as we understand the term (life expectancy for certain social groups is very low) or social orphans created by the fact that their parents are incapable for many reasons of looking after them.

This year’s shoebox appeal will touch many hundreds of children and families through the children’s charity “Heritage of Chernobyl”, a Gomel based charity set up by the state to help these children. Members of Gomel Lions Club work closely with the charity. The charity accepts delivery of our lorry load of shoeboxes, bulk goods and parcels and distributes it over a period of a couple of months.

This year the load again included over 550 personally addressed cases of goods and shoeboxes to just over 200 individual addresses which are based in schools, orphanages, kindergartens, housing estates, large destitute family groups and single parent family groups. It also went to a new educational centre which includes several orphanages, some of which are new to us.

The load also included specially requested goods such as a petrol-driven grass cutter and chain saw to be used in maintaining the grounds of a number of orphanages.

When our lorry left the warehouse on September 22nd this year, the load was just over 8,100Kg with a calculated (second-hand goods) value in excess of £10,000 (value new probably £50,000 plus) and filled the 40 ft curtain sided trailer to an average height of about 8 ft.

The load included over 30 packing cases of second-hand checked and refurbished computers and laptops plus computer spares and printers.As usual we had a massive variety of toiletries, toys, clothing, paper, books, stationery, bicycles, scooters, sewing machines, knitting machines, hand tools, furniture and a miscellany of other items of everyday life, and they will be overjoyed to receive them.