Christmas Shoe box 2021

On the morning of 4 December 2021, after almost a year of planning and several weeks of collecting gifts, the day for the Christmas shoe box outreach finally arrived. A team of committed Santa's elves – read volunteers – made their way to Cosmo City. For the first time since the launch of this project in 2016, the team split into two groups as we were headed to two locations. After having spent the week leading up to the Saturday, contemplating whether we had taken a bite too big - we were very nervous because we were unable to meet the target of 1500 gifts that we had set for ourselves - we decided to keep to our promise and went ahead with the two locations at Life Abundance Church in extension 4 and New Ministries church in extension two. When we arrived at New Ministries church, the community had no idea of what would happen that day- this was our first Christmas outreach with the community in extension 2. When they saw the cars pull-in at the church, with a trailer in-tow they started to line up outside the church gates. Meanwhile at Life Abundance church in extension 4, when we arrived, we found hundreds of parents already lined up outside the church. This community knows what happens at the Christmas outreach and each parent wanted to be first in line to receive gifts for their children. With great excitement the respective teams unpacked and set up the gifts according to age groups in order for everything to run seamlessly. At New Ministries, we had enough gifts for everyone that waited in the queue. Each parent received gifts for all their kids, it did not matter the number. If you had four kids, you received four gifts according to your children's ages. At New Abundance, we started the day by giving parents enough for all their children, but word got around and those in need of help came in their masses. We soon realized that we did not enough gifts to give to the scores of parents queuing outside. It was then that we had to make the heartbreaking decision to limit each parent to only two gifts for their youngest children. Overall, even after we did not reach our target and were forced to make tough decisions, the day was a huge success, it far exceeded our expectations. One story that stood out is that of Daphney Phanyako, who takes care of 5 orphaned kids. Some are her grandchildren and the other her relatives' kids. Having been our beneficiary for some time, the JDC team is very familiar with her story. That day, Daphney arrived after the decision to limit gifts to only two per parent. With some of our volunteers, on duty that day, unfamiliar with her story, Daphney only received two gifts. Without complaining, she accepted the two gifts. Fortunately , when she was on her way out, a JDC team member that is familiar with her story noticed her and an exception was made especially for her. Later that night, Daphney sent an SMS expressing her gratitude.