A KIND-HEARTED couple from Stratford are calling on the community to once again help spread goodwill to families in Romania this Christmas.
Malcolm and Anne McCulloch have collected and distributed more than 2,000 shoeboxes full of gifts and essentials for the last seven years to help poverty-stricken families.
The pair have personally travelled twice to help charities based in the Eastern Europe country hand-out the boxes.
The husband and wife said the visits had motivated them to collect more shoeboxes each year.
Malcolm said: “To us in the UK these are our everyday items but to these Romanian families living in very basic conditions they are a reminder that someone cares enough to give them the only gift they will receive this Christmas.”
The couple, who are members of Stratford Baptist Church, are working alongside charity Amen trust, which distributes the shoeboxes.
And fellow church member Dinah Madge is currently living in the country volunteering with the charity.
Malcolm added: “Dinah is a volunteer educating children via a homework group and has been helping to distribute clothing and food parcels.
She is also carrying on the work of another church member, Pete Malkin, who started a group to help those with additional needs. In Romania the state offers very little support to those in the community with additional needs.”
The family shoeboxes are not aimed at different genders or a certain age group and could include toiletries, notebooks, small gifts, sewing kits, sweets, socks, gloves and jewellery.
Donated boxes need to be delivered to Malcolm and Anne by Sunday November 8.
Email [email protected] or call 01789 294908 for more details.
