10,000 shoeboxes sent off to Malawi from Wexford
A CONSIGNMENT of 9,705 Christmas shoeboxes are on their way to children in Malawi in Africa from primary and secondary schoolgoers in County Wexford as part of this year’s national Team Hope project.
‘We surpassed our expections,’ said a delighted but tired Sue Tobin who has been involved in the Wexford shoebox appeal for 22 years. The current county coordinator is Lorna Burt of Enniscorthy who directed the local operation.
A container truck filled with festive packages left Wexford last Tuesday and will take approximately three weeks to reach its destination over land and sea.
An army of young people in about 80% of primary and secondary schools filled and donated shoeboxes this year, some of them visiting the Team Hope warehouse at Celtic Linen in Drinagh, outside Wexford town to see the work of the volunteers at first hand.
‘We were having terrible difficulty finding a storage premises and Celtic Linen stepped in at the 11th hour and we are very grateful to them for their help’, said Sue.
Shoebox donors were asked to contribute items based on four ‘W’s – Write, Wash, Wear and Well – including school materials, toothpaste and soap, small items of clothing such as scarves and hats as well as toys.
‘It would be nice to put in some books but we never know until the last minute whether the shoeboxes are going to an English-speaking country,’ said Sue.
‘When we ring up head office to tell them that we have a container filled, we then find out where the lorry is going. It’s Malawai this year, the same as last year.’
It took hours to fill the lorry when it arrived at the warehouse last week. Ten men came along to help the volunteers who had cked all the donated boxes before packing.
‘You wouldn’t believe the amount of things we have to take out of the boxes’, said Sue.
‘We’re not allowed to have liquids in them because of the danger of leakage and damage but people will often include bottles of shampoo and things like Lynx. We’re not allowed food items either so packets of biscuits and tinned foodstuffs have to be removed.’
‘We remove boxes and boxes of stuff. We give them to Wexford Women’s Refuge, Ozanam House, the Men’s Shed and Wexford Housing Action Group.’
There is always a shortage of volunteers, according to Sue. ‘We never have enough volunteers. We always need helpers in November Each individual box has to be checked and packed and that takes time.’
‘It’s a lot of hard work. But it’s wonderfully rewarding. I retired as coordinator five years ago but I can’t walk away from it,’ said Sue.
County Wexford Team Hope thanked Pettitt’s SuperValu and Tesco for donations of toothpaste. The team raised funds during the year to buy filler items for the boxes, providing a boost to the local economy.