A Box with a Christmas miracle

or how 11,724 Christmas presents reached people in need

The festive season has passed but we want to tell you all about our 2016 Christmas box appeal.

Working together with our partners from The Trussell Trust we reached thousands of people who live in extreme poverty to bring warmth and hope into their lives at a time of year that so often serves to remind many just how marginalised and excluded they are from mainstream society.

We have been organising this project for eight years and although every year has seen the number of presents and volunteers increase, this year was exceptional. Thousands of presents were donated by our friends in the UK. These wonderful little boxes of joy were prepared by school children and their families, businesses, churches, community groups and individuals from all over England and Wales. They were then carefully sorted, arranged in categories and packed appropriately for their trip to Bulgaria by over 500 volunteers and the Trussell Trustteam(see the video here).

Meanwhile, in Bulgaria, our team coordinated all the distributions of the presents to different institutions and people in need – homes for children deprived of parental care, women and child victims of violence, women victims of trafficking, single parents, families in crisis, families of prisoners, elderly people placed in specialised institutions and many others.

When the truck from England with all the presents arrived in Sofia, dozens of volunteers responded to our call and helped us to unload and arrange them in a warehouse.  Our volunteers were people with different professions, with many personal and business commitments. They made their own travel arrangements to get to the warehouse, which was just outside Sofia, and gave their time on a freezing December day to help us unload the huge truck, which was filled right up with cases of Christmas presents. We are very grateful to all our wonderful volunteers for giving up their time to help people they will probably never meet – they showed great enthusiasm and real compassion!

We also received fantastic support both in finding and renting the warehouse and paying for all the transport of the Christmas presents around Bulgaria. The rental cost for the warehouse and all the courier costs for delivering presentswere met by our friends at Rhea MP Industry –who are representatives of reputable international companies and are a leading provider of: heating and air conditioning of vehicles and special machines; and transmissions and drives for forklift trucks and the production of construction and agricultural machinery.

The support from the team of Rhea MP Industry and especially by the Executive Director Mr. Nikolay Mechkov who was constantly talking with us during the campaign, its preparation and implementation, was exceptional and deeply appreciated. Thank you for believing in us! Thank you that together we brought happiness to so many people!

“The campaign is inspiring because it brings a lot of joy to people in difficult life situations on one of the brightest holidays of the year. On the other hand, the campaign combines the efforts of our local community and volunteers from different strata of the society, including business people. It is so beautiful when our charity enjoys theunited efforts of the international team from the NGO sector, businesses and the wider community”, said Teodora Koleva, Executive Director of FSCI.

After all the logistics and physical labour, it’s time for the best part – giving out the presents!

“It is truly humbling to see the reaction of the parents, who have nothing to give to their children for Christmas, when we bring the boxes. Many of the people who received our presents were abandoned or rejected and we hope that in this way we managed to show them that someone cares about them.”, said Rich Parsons, Overseas manager at Trussell Trust, UK.

Varna,Gabrovitsa, Burgas, Sofia, Hajredin, Botevgrad, Stara Zagora, Gabrovo, Brestovene, Lipnitsa, Pravets, Bobov Dol, Rousse, Popovtsi, Boichinovtsi, Barzitsa, Balchik, Sandanski, Busmantsi,Yambol, refugee camps in Sofia and Bulgaria.

With so many places visited we gathered countless emotions and experiences. We became a small part of the lives of many different people. We learned a lot and were motivated to continue to fight for disadvantaged people in Bulgaria to receive opportunities to build a decent life for themselves.

This year Christmas came to disperse the goodness and beauty in our daily lives, tell us what is really valuable and why it is important to be human. We cannot list the names of all who supported us in this initiative, there are so many, but please accept our gratitude and best wishes for a wonderful 2017!
You can find more information about the Christmas Box campaign here.
Learn more about how you can support the Foundation for Social change and Inclusion here.