MORE than 1,000 shoeboxes filled with gifts have been collected and shipped off to disadvantaged children as part of a seasonal charity effort.

Residents in Basingstoke have defied the recession and given as generously as ever to this year’s Operation Christmas Child, which delivers shoeboxes filled with presents to young children in Africa, Eastern Europe and central Asia.

Sharon Davies, a volunteer from Buckskin Evangelical Church, said: “We have collected quite a lot already so I think we will be just short of 2,000 by the time we have finished – about the same as last year.

“We have already sent off 1,000 boxes and the Rotary clubs have collected a lot locally as well, so between us we will have delivered a lot of boxes.”

She added that most donations have come from Basingstoke schools, companies and churches.

Readers have dropped off 115 boxes at The Gazette offices for the scheme, having already donated 84 shoeboxes as part of the Rotary Christmas Shoebox Appeal.

Roger Fenton, manager of the south region for Samaritan’s Purse, the Christian relief charity that runs Operation Christmas Child, said: “Boxes are still being collected and people are still phoning up for us to collect, so my gut feeling is that we will be broadly the same as last year.

“Regionally, we collected 189,000 last year and as a country we should ship out about 1.2 million shoeboxes.”

Shoeboxes filled with all sorts of gifts – including toys, stickers, stationery, jewellery, cars and building blocks – are delivered to boys and girls up to the age of 14 who would otherwise not receive any Christmas presents.

More information about the scheme is available at operationchristmaschild.org.uk.