2024 Operation Christmas child has begun in Águilas

Every year, millions of shoe boxes are filled with gifts for children in need

Councillors José Antonio Consentino and Elena Casado, together with the pastors of Águilas, Sara Pineda and Emerson de Souza, announced this week the launch of Operation Christmas Child, a charitable drive that collects everything from school supplies, personal hygiene items and toys to distribute to children around the world.

This year, the boxes will go to Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Romania, Ukraine and the northern part of Africa.

The gifts are donated by people who show their love and solidarity by filling them with new products and taking them to the Delivery Points throughout Spain.

As in the past, there are several distribution points around the town for the boxes since Águilas Town Council is once again joining the solidarity project by handing out the boxes.

Delivery for the boxes is on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6pm to 8pm at the Evangelical Baptist Church (Plaza Doctor Calero, 5). The church is also a distribution point for the boxes.

This year, the Capri Youth Centre will be added as a delivery and collection point for the boxes.

The deadline for delivery is November 23, when there will be a Box Collection Party in Parque Blanco that will also have many activities for both children and adults.

Christmas Child is a worldwide project of the NGO Samaritan's Purse, coordinated in Spain by the Evangelical Association Decisión, the logistics of which are controlled by the Evangelical Churches.

Schools, companies, associations, Catholic parishes and non-religious groups also participate and the boxes are distributed to countries in need, without distinction of race, religion, sex or social class.

The Evangelical Churches of those countries are responsible for coordinating the distribution of the boxes.

Today, Operation Christmas Child is the largest humanitarian Christmas project for children in the world. Every year, more than 11 million boxes are distributed in more than 100 countries around the world.

Águilas Councillor for Education, José Antonio Consentino, did not hesitate to "encourage the people of Águilas to participate in this beautiful project, whose recipients are children, and thus give joy to those most in need."

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Image: Ayuntamiento de Águilas