Charity to fill 300,000 boxes with Christmas toys

Irish people will donate up to 300,000 boxes of Christmas toys in coming weeks to ensure Santa doesn't forget poor children abroad.

The Operation Christmas Child initiative is organised for the 10th year by the Dublin-based office of the Christian relief organisation, Samaritan's Purse.

Last year, 7.5 million needy children in almost one hundred countries received boxes of toys under the project.

A total of 287,505 boxes were collected in Ireland.

Empty shoe boxes are being distributed to schools, offices, factories, churches, youth groups and families.

The toys from Ireland will be shipped to children in orphanages, schools, street shelters, hospitals and poor communities in countries in Eastern Europe and Africa.

The recipient countries include Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Croatia, Moldova, Burundi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho.

"We're celebrating our 10th year in Ireland, and over that time almost two million gift-filled shoe boxes have been sent from Ireland," said Niall Barry, Samaritan's Purse executive director.

Operation Christmas Child, which began in Wales in the early 1990s, is now one of the world's largest children's Christmas projects.