Millions of poor children to receive Christmas shoe boxes

More than seven million needy children overseas will soon be holding in their hands a Christmas shoe box - which for many is the only gift they will receive this holiday.

|PIC1|Operation Christmas Child - the world's largest Christmas project - has helped collect the millions of shoeboxes filled by kids in countries like the UK and US with toys, pens, papers, necessity items and notes of encouragement to distribute to underprivileged children in 100 countries. In addition to kids, families, businesses, churches, schools and scout troops have also contributed to the Christmas shoe box effort.

"Millions of people have already made this a brighter Christmas for a hurting child overseas, but we welcome others to start a new holiday tradition and share the joy of Christmas with boys and girls around the world," said Franklin Graham, president and CEO of international Christian relief organisation Samaritan's Purse, in a statement.

Operation Christmas Child is an annual project of Samaritan's Purse.

The shoeboxes have already been inspected and prepared for overseas shipment in countries around the world, including the UK and the US. After the preparation at the centers, the shoe boxes are loaded onto some of the world's largest cargo planes, trucks and sea containers for their journey overseas.

Once they reach their first destination, Samaritan's Purse teams and partners transport the boxes by truck, bus, train, helicopter, boat, foot, dog sled, mule and even camel to hand-deliver the gifts to the needy children.

More than 250,000 volunteers worldwide have helped prepare the boxes for transport.

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan's Purse, has delivered more than 60 million gift-filled shoe boxes to needy children in 120 countries based on the giving of people in 11 giving countries.