SW News: US-based NGO Samaritan’s Purse will hand over its 200 millionth shoebox containing toys during the Christmas season to a Ukrainian child. More than 198 million children in more than 170 countries around the globe have benefitted from the organization’s Operation Christmas Child over the past thirty years.

Each shoebox contains toys, school supplies and hygiene items for children in nations affected by war, poverty, disease and disaster. In 2021, the initiative was able to fetch 10 million boxes with gifts in America alone and one million from other affiliated groups. This year, the box will be personally delivered to a child in Ukraine by a former recipient of the gift box Elizabeth Groff. The 28-year-old Texas resident received one such box while she was an 11-year-old orphan in eastern Ukraine.

The Christian Post reports that Groff, who was later adopted by an American family, still remembers the gift box and the yellow yo-yo inside. "It may seem small, but it is powerful when delivered with a message of love and hope! It changed my life," she said in a statement, which was accessed by The Christian Post. "Eighteen years ago, a shoebox gift opened my heart to God's Word and now I have the opportunity to personally demonstrate God's love in a tangible way to a Ukrainian child. We serve a faithful God! Being able to pack and deliver this special shoebox gift will be a highlight of my Christmas season!"

The vice-president of operations at Samaritan’s Purse Franklin Graham, who is also the son of founder Billy Graham, said that the NGO has been serving in Ukraine since 1996. After the invasion of Russia in February, the organization has been sending medicines and food to the eastern European nation. It is being done through a network involving 3,200 churches. "We distribute over 11 million shoeboxes. The church network has been there for a long time," Graham told The Christian Post.

It was in the aftermath of the Bosnian War that Operation Christmas Child was initiated. That was a time when Franklin was asked to provide gifts to children in need in the war-torn country. As many as 4,600 church partners help in collecting the shoeboxes. Graham said that close to 80,000 volunteers in the United States process the shoeboxes as part of the initiative.