Operation Christmas Child - mission accomplished!

2:52pm Tuesday 2nd January 2007

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WINTER in Romania is cold, hard and bitter. For 45 years, the country was ruled by one of the most cruel communist regimes the world has seen.

People starved while communist dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu sold the food the country was making to other countries. There were no social services and contraception was illegal, leading to many unwanted children being left in overcrowded and squalid orphanages.

Thankfully, the communist regime came to an end in 1989, although the effects of this era are likely to continue for some time. Things have improved, but living conditions in Romania are poor and there are entire families living in the sort of poverty that we, in this country, would find it difficult to imagine.

I was privileged enough to be invited by Samaritan's Purse, the charity that runs Operation Christmas Child, to join the Romanian distribution team the week before Christmas to deliver shoeboxes full of gifts to the children.

On arrival in Bucharest, I joined a team of volunteers and we flew north to Cluj Napoca.

Our first visit was to a tiny farming village called Fanate, which consisted of three sets of run-down, Soviet-style apartment blocks. The farm closed down years ago, but the people there remained in their homes with no amenities except for a shared well. Living conditions are unimaginable by our standards and the level of poverty was heartbreaking to witness. However, it was joy mixed with sadness giving presents to these children, who were elated with the simple gifts that lay inside the shoeboxes. This was their Christmas Day and they knew there was no guarantee it was going to come again next year.

We were then invited into their homes. One family, Elena and Shony and their children, Andrei, 12 and Andrea, five, all four of whom lived in a single room, considered themselves to be one of the lucky ones. Shony had work in Cluj and despite having to walk into town each day (a four-hour round trip), he brought home a wage - around £25 per week. Although this covered the absolute basics, it certainly didn't stretch to presents.

I asked Elena if they would be having anything special to eat on Christmas Day and she replied no, they were simply happy to be able to eat, but they would be treating themselves to a bottle of coke.

The following day included a visit to the Children's Oncology Hospital in Cluj. Oblivious to their condition, the children opened their shoeboxes, some completely overwhelmed by the gifts inside and unable to display any emotion. One child, six-year-old Louis, was fascinated with my digital camera and began taking photographs of his teddy bears. Luckily, my camera was quickly forgotten about as he opened his shoebox and took out his first ever toy car - something he was engrossed in for the rest of the visit.

I later discovered that it was probably Louis's last Christmas. He was suffering with a stomach tumour that had returned again, despite three lots of surgery.

The next day, we visited an orphanage run by husband and wife team Ana and Nicu. There were 15 children in total, some had been abandoned, others were there because their parents were sick or had died. Two brothers were in the orphanage because both their parents were in prison. We received a wonderful welcome and stayed a couple of hours with the children. They seemed so happy, it was sometimes easy to forget that all they longed for was to be part of a traditional family.

A four-hour journey the following day took us to Baia Mare, a town not far from the Ukraine border.

Along the way on some of the roughest roads in Romania, we passed many horse and carts - a novelty at first before realising they were a regular form of transport. We also saw young children sat at the side of roads, begging for money and food.

A lot of our time was spent in the van, travelling to some of the more remote parts of Northern Romania. A series of bumpy roads took us to the gypsy village of Ticau. Hundreds of wide-eyed, smiling faces greeted us and the children all sang traditional Christmas Carols, pretty much at the top of their voices! It was a little chaotic when distributing the boxes and I was worried there wouldn't be enough, but thankfully, every single child received a shoebox. One little boy of about 10 went off into a corner to open his box. As soon as he saw a packet of pens, his face lit up. "It's the best box in the village!" he shouted. The pens and paper now meant he would be allowed to go to school - and he couldn't wait.

Another girl, 13, was overjoyed with the main present in her shoebox - a pink skipping rope.

Our next delivery was at a school in the village of Sarata, which in comparison to Ticau, was relatively affluent. The Nativity is very much alive and well in Romania and the children had prepared their play for us, all dressed in traditional Romanian costume, handmade by one of the ladies in the village.

Afterwards, as the children were given their shoeboxes, I asked, via our translator, a little boy of about eight what he would like for Christmas.

"Clothes," he simply replied. I realised that clothes were expensive and these must be his usual Christmas present, never having received any kind of toy. His delight was clear to see as he opened his box and discovered a hand puppet inside.

It was magical for these children to receive these simple gifts that had cost us such little money and time to put together.

On one visit, a little girl was presented with her shoebox. She opened it, looked at everything in awe and then packed it all away again and returned the box. She could not comprehend that the presents were hers to keep. Some volunteers spoke of a ten-year-old boy who'd got a bouncy ball - he'd never seen one before and was utterly overjoyed.

This week, Romania joined the European Union. While this is met with disapproval from some, the situation in Romania is likely to get considerably worse before it gets better, as skilled workers leave the country for better-paid work elsewhere.

Almost 13,000 shoeboxes were collected in Wirral for Operation Christmas Child and I can now say first-hand that every single one of these boxes was given to a child in real need.

My trip to Northern Romania was a moving and inspirational adventure and one that helped to put the Christmas season very firmly in perspective.