NOVEMBER 2024:
Operation Christmas Love is a key campaign in Mission Without Borders’ calendar year! It is one of our biggest annual projects, and an easy way to communicate the love of Christ to as many people as possible, at Christmas time.
In the countries where we work—Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine—there are so many people living in poverty & struggling.
At Christmas, we want them to experience the love and generosity of Christ, by supplying an Operation Christmas Love parcel full of food, essentials and some treats, along with Christian literature that presents the Gospel.
We want Christmas to be a day when those suffering from high winter costs, the stress of unpaid bills, unemployment or poorly-paid jobs, to be able to forget their troubles and enjoy the celebration of the season. And to know the truth of Christmas—Jesus Christ, and what He has done for us.
For Christmas 2024, we want to be able to distribute a total of 38,000 parcels across our six field countries. All the boxes are produced locally, in the field countries where we work, and all the food is also sourced locally.
THE NEED
Poverty in Eastern Europe leads to poor nourishment, inadequate housing & heating, stress & mental health issues, reduced access to healthcare, and the inability to manage long-term medical conditions. Stress has been linked to unhealthy behaviors associated with unemployment, including alcohol & drug abuse, and domestic abuse.
Youth employment has particularly long-lasting consequences. People who are unemployed between the ages of 18 and 21 are more likely to have poor mental health that can affect them into their 40s.
Long-term or repeated incidents of unemployment have negative implications for future employment; the longer a person is out of work, the more difficult they find it to re-enter the work force. Children who grow up in families with chronic unemployment are more likely to under-achieve at school, or be taken out of school entirely to either find work or beg.
