Since 1996 through the efforts and direct involvement of Pastor Bardakjian, the Samaritan’s Purse and Operation Christmas Child International organizations’ “Shoe box” distribution projects have been actively administered in Armenia.
The shoeboxes are gifts prepared by British, Irish, German, Austrian children, and distributed through the efforts of CCMI to various children of Armenian and other ethnic backgrounds.
The shoeboxes are distributed during the Christmas season as a tool to bring the message of Christmas – the greatest gift of all – to the children.
This year we have over 1000 Armenian organizations that applied and were part of our national OCC program.
In 2009 Armenia received 135.000 boxes from Ireland, England, Germany, and Austria. Every Wednesday a meeting is held with 35-40 representatives of Yerevan and RA regions that have applications and want to be the part of the shoe box project which became a great tool not only introducing the kids the Greatest Gift of All, but also building the local communities.
Around 835,000 shoeboxes have been distributed during the past 8 years.
