Salisbury-based charity House of Opportunity has organised a Christmas shoebox appeal with over 6500 presents heading for Bulgaria next week.

At the weekend the House of Opportunity collection hub was busy packing shoeboxes at Woodfalls Methodist Church near Salisbury in Wiltshire with many volunteers helping. The shoeboxes were donated by local groups and many from across the country including schools, churches, and businesses.

Christmas boxes will go to children and adults in all kinds of circumstances, including abandoned children living in state care,  poor rural schools and kindergartens, women’s refuges, prisoner’s children, isolated or lonely elderly folk, refugees, and Roma children living in difficult conditions.

The Christmas Box Appeal began as a Trussell Trust project at the turn of the millennium. At the time, Trussell was focused on working in the Balkans, and its Foodbank concept was being trialed in Salisbury.

The charity receives around 7,000 - 9,000 Christmas boxes each year and this year's boxes will be making their way across Europe at the start of next week, ready for distribution.

Operations Manager at House of Opportunity, Rich Parsons, said: "The presents show people who have been rejected or are living in poverty that they are loved, and help us to build bridges with communities.

"Christmas boxes may be the first contact that we have with young people, children or families to help them avoid being drawn into extreme poverty or being trafficked throughout Europe, possibly ending up on UK streets".

According to the charity, a few benefits of the Christmas box project are:

  1. Gets lots of schools, businesses, and churches involved with practical help and support for people through House of Opportunity.
  2. Increases volunteering opportunities in the UK and Bulgaria
  3. Helps to establish working relationships with orphanages and other institutions in Bulgaria.
  4. Sets an example for other organisations in supporting vulnerable people.
  5. Models how like-minded organisations can work together to mutual benefit.

See https://houseofopportunity.org/what-we-do/ for more info.