Toy-filled shoeboxes heading to Ukrainian children

Children from Bransgore Primary School in Dorset packed shoeboxes with toys and winter clothes

For many children this year opening a Christmas present on Christmas morning will be just a dream.

In Ukraine, many children are still displaced due to the ongoing conflict after the Russian invasion.

It means this Christmas will be a bleak one, once again, for many children in the region and their families.

However, children in Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight have done their bit to spread some Christmas cheer by making up shoeboxes full of presents.  

The shoeboxes are individually packed and decorated before being shipped to children abroad

The Wessex Rotary Shoebox Scheme has been running for the past twenty years.

Primary school children across Hampshire, Dorset & The Isle of Wight are encouraged to send gifts to children aged between one and fifteen.

The students are told the ages of the children receiving the gifts and what should be included, such as toys and games, colouring books and winter hats.

This year there is a special emphasis on helping children displaced in Ukraine, where 4,500 presents will be sent this year.

Susan Lewis, from Bransgore Rotary Club in the New Forest, said: "[The presents] go through Poland and then onto a humanitarian convoy into Ukraine to go to the children that are displaced within their own country.

"It's lovely to feel that you're actually giving something to children who have very little."

The shoeboxes will arrive in Poland and later be distributed to children in Romania, Ukraine and Moldova

Bransgore Church of England Primary School is one school in the south that is involved.

Its acting head teacher Nikki Pollitt said: "We have supported the Wessex Rotary shoe box scheme for probably the last 20 years.  

"As a church school our core value is love and we talk a lot with the children about being a loving school, what that looks like and what that feels like.

The children here are very aware that the shoeboxes are going to children less fortunate than themselves."

When the school children were asked what they had included in their shoeboxes, Lottie said: "I've put in some of my favourite toys, because I really like them and I think they'll have fun with them."  

Charlie said: "I've put in a woolly hat and some gloves for the cold, apparently when they see the shoebox they think its like gold almost."

Once the shoeboxes are filled and complete, they're all sent to a special packing centre in Boscombe in Dorset.

There thousands of boxes from the Wessex rotary region, which includes Hampshire, Dorset , The Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands, are all gathered and sorted into age groups before being sent to Poland.

Once in Poland they are then put in a special humanitarian convoy, which travels to Moldova, Romania and Ukraine to be distributed and put a smile on children's faces.

Last year eighteen thousand shoeboxes were sent from the south of England, via Poland, to Children in Moldova, Romania and Ukraine.