Kingston and Surbiton Optician's Festive Gift

Opticians in Kingston and Surbiton are asking customers to think of those less fortunate this Christmas and donate gift-filled shoe boxes for children in the developing world.

Specsavers in Kingston and Surbiton will be collecting the shoe boxes in-store as part of the Operation Christmas Child appeal. Local residents are being asked to fill the boxes with an array of gifts, including toys, books, pens and sweets. The boxes will be sent to orphans and vulnerable children living in difficult circumstances abroad.

Guy Loveday, store director of Specsavers Kingston and Surbiton says: ‘The Christmas shoe box appeal is a lovely idea and a great way to share the festive spirit with those who are less fortunate, particularly children who may not even be aware that it is Christmas. We’d like to thank our customers for anything they are able to donate.’

Operation Christmas Child is the largest children's Christmas project in the world, run by the Christian charity Samaritan's Purse. They have been sending gift-filled shoeboxes to disadvantaged children around the world since 1990, bringing joy into the lives of over 80 million children.

To find out more about the Operation Christmas Child appeal or book an eye examination at Specsavers Kingston, please call 020 8974 6677 or visit www.specsavers.co.uk/stores/kingston

Comments

This Operation Christmas Child shoebox thing does sound dodgy going by this Guardian article written by an English CoE vicar.

Deeply offensive to Muslims and promoted by right wing American nut jobs. I'm pretty sure most people thinking of giving wouln't know about the agenda behind it.

Read the article "The evangelicals who like to giftwrap Islamophobia" at this link

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/nov/10/religion.society

It's not that I object to a charity on the basis that it is a religious organisation: it is the fact that these businesses are only interested in giving Christmas gifts to poor people abroad, some of whom "may not know it is Christmas." Eh? If they don't know, why would they want a Christmas gift? What about local businesses helping poor old people or children in their own locality who *do* know it is Christmas and may be in need of a gift or help with food or bills?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/nov/10/religion.society

As the Guardian article says, if you really want to give to a Christian charity then Christian Aid is a much better option.

They spend the money on real aid projects for all, irrespective of religion. Not bribes of useless toys in an attempt to convert people to a narrow fundamentalist US version of Christianity.

People should really reflect on the aims of the organisation that runs this, and on whether this is a genuinely effective way of delivering aid to ALL those that most need it.

I am surprised that a company like Specsavers are participatiing in such a divisive scheme.

Read this and make up your own minds:

https://humanism.org.uk/humanism/humanism-today/humanists-doing/good-cau...

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly. If you have a Gravatar account associated with the e-mail address you provide, it will be used to display your avatar.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <p>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Filtered words will be replaced with the filtered version of the word.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

By posting content on Surbiton.com, you agree to adhere to the following guidelines.

  • Your username and password must only be used by you, keep them safe. If a posting is made using your username and password it will be considered to have been posted by you. If you have a friend who wants to use our site and post messages on the site, show them how to register.
  • Be courteous at all times, inciting racial hatred, posting abusive, obscene, threatening, harassing, defamatory, libellous or sexually explicit material or any material that is found to be offensive is not acceptable and we may suspend your username and password.
  • Retaliating to offensive posts causes more problems for other users on the discussion boards. Just report such messages to us using the Feedback link which is available at the top of every page or the 'report this' link associated with individual postings. We will act on every report we receive.
  • Please respect other people's work and do not post material that infringes copyright.
  • Do not post information that you know to be confidential or sensitive or otherwise in breach of the law. You should only post material that you know to be public knowledge. If you have any doubts do not post it on the site.
  • Never attempt to gain unauthorised access to any area of the site. This is known as hacking and is illegal.
  • Content posted represents the opinions of the author, and does not represent the opinions of Surbiton.com or its affiliates and has not been approved or issued by Surbiton.com. You should be aware that the other participants are strangers to you and may make statements which may be misleading, deceptive or wrong.
  • Spoofing or posing as another user is unacceptable. Anonymous users' postings should always be considered with suspicion.
  • Help keep Surbiton.com a safe place for information and opinion. Please alert us of any anti-social behaviour as described above.
Please note that Surbiton.com does not monitor the comments posted and we are therefore reliant upon users reporting antisocial behaviour.