At seven years of age, Claudiu has to be one of Blythswood’s youngest shoebox distributors. And, of course, there was one for him, too, after he had helped to hand them out in the compound where he lives with his family, in small-town western Romania.
Rafael is one of the students at Raza de Soare, a school for children with special needs in Arad, Romania. Abandoned by his mother and diagnosed with autism, he was left in the care of his father who did not know how to help him. Rafael was 11 when he started school. Now he is a calmer person and can make decisions for himself.
Paul Algeo has served as Blythswood’s church engagement officer for south and central Scotland since 2024. In December he helped to distribute shoeboxes in the Cahul district of southern Moldova. “I couldn’t understand one word this lady was saying but her gratitude was obvious,” he remembers. “She was so frail and wanted to take my hand and squeezed it tight.
Seven-year-old Ana is the youngest of four children in a village 20km from the city of Gjakova, Kosovo. In poor health and without employment, her parents, Gezim and Saranda, survive by scavenging through other people’s rubbish for cans and scrap metal.
Lajos got home for Christmas! After spending all year in a children’s home, he and his brother and sister were allowed to return to the two-roomed village dwelling which is shared by their grandparents, father and step-mother in rural eastern Hungary.
Pastor Roumen Ivanov tells how your gifts were distributed in one of the poorest communities in Bulgaria