Shoebox 2011 Update – Thank You!

Children receiving their Shoeboxes at Christmas

Disabled children in Bulgaria, the elderly and disadvantaged in Eastern Europe and UK all benefitted at Christmas from your overwhelming support, making 2011 our best so far.

Warm clothing, given that temperatures have dropped to -17c in some areas, medical supplies, shoeboxes, blankets, bedding and much more…

Well done to all that supported the Christmas shoebox appeal for which a full update will shortly be available…

But it’s not over! Our work now begins for 2012, in the hope that the long-awaited 7.5 tonne lorry we have been seeking for so many years will become a possibility in the months ahead.

Thank you all for 2011, now let’s get cracking on 2012.

Simon

Tough times in the cold!

This is as good as it gets at 6 in the morning after a night sleeping in our vans in the middle of december. Alison flew back from Budapest having a stomach upset. Sadly despite all efforts it was not possible to reach destination. Boy it was cold!

Still smiling after 15hrs driving

Still smiling despite 15 hours driving and not arriving back in romania until 2am for a journey in the Uk that would take a lot less time.

This is what it’s all about!

It’s been an amazing trip!

Alison and Ruth have been busy distributing shoeboxes to disadvantaged children in Northern Romania in the town of Cluj, whilst also visiting various locations including the local municipal dump where around 400 people live in basic hovels scratching a living collecting plastic waste, cardboard, etc.

With over 2,000 miles now on the clock we have arrived in Bulgaria to distribute our final boxes to benefit both the elderly and disabled children in the Northern region of Shumen.

These trips are certainly not picnic runs, long days, plenty of manual work plus countless hours sat behind the steering wheel require a fair amount of stamina which Alison and Ruth having no previous experience have managed exceptionally well. Diet though has proved problematic given the variety of food experienced over the journey. Stomach problems have required amending our itinerary to gain much needed rest and recuperation before undertaking our return trip to the UK.

Rough weather to Romania

We have now covered 1600 miles and now are in Romania for the next couple of days.

Ruth and Alison are in Cluj and are helping with the unloading of a thousand or more shoe boxes and clothing plus distribution over the next few days with the Family Aid Foundation.

Meanwhile I am in Blaj a smaller town to visit a local school and visit a site in one of the villages which is looking for help to build a children’s playground.

We have encountered every type of weather condition but as Ruth says “nothing as bad as the weather up on the Shetlands”.

One interesting thing has been the occurrence of babies within each household we have stayed as with this picture from Blaj and Loran and Anna’s son.

Didn’t they do well?

Our two lady drivers. Alison from Hailsham and Ruth from Waas on the Shetland islands did amazingly well on their first day. Over 17 hours on the road and some 750 miles covered taking us up to Neuotting in Bavaria and a welcome overnight stop in a Gasthoff thanks to friends Peter and Claudia

Home Run of 850 miles in a day

Blog update: Home run

Boy it has been quite a trip, returning early this morning involved a non stop run from Milan back to Hailsham… 850 miles including a detour via Luxembourg certainly gave the new Renault Trafic a sound testing. Including the 16Km run through those amazing tunnels cut right through the mountains. Before entering the tunnel the outside temperature reading -3c but once you drive in, it just gets warmer and warmer. 26c the highest reading….

As always the $100 million  question has been asked!! Was it worth it? Indeed its hard graft, especially given nearly 2000 miles of driving in so few days, financially obviously not given that much of our work and support is far from calculable.