Shoebox Appeal 2026

For 35 years, Children in Distress has been bringing hope and happiness to children in Romania facing hardship through our annual Love in a Box Shoebox Appeal. Every Christmas, a beautifully decorated box filled with love, essentials and little surprises, brings joy and smiles to children in need. Our annual Christmas Shoebox Appeal is the biggest campaign in our small charity's calendar.

Support Our 2026 Shoebox Appeal

We've launched our 2026 'love in a box' appeal. Can you help us by filling one or more shoeboxes with gifts for children, teenagers or older adults or by donating to support the appeal? You can support us as an individual or as part of a community, church, business, school or other group. Please download our leaflet to find out more about how the appeal works and to get involved. If you have any questions or would like to chat to our team, we would love you to get in touch.

We'd also love to chat to businesses who would like to get involved. We can offer lots of opportunities including inspiring colleagues to pack a shoebox and sponsorship opportunities.

2025 Shoebox Appeal Impact

In 2025, thanks to the kindness of our friends and supporters, we delivered over 5,000 individually packed Christmas shoeboxes across Romania to children, teenagers and older adults. Shoeboxes were distributed at over 20 locations, including schools, churches, residential care centres and community projects.

Thanks also to our partners in the business world for supporting our 2025 campaign including nationwide haulage and warehousing company, Prestons of Potto. For over 20 years, they have proudly provided storage solutions for our appeal in their warehouses. Enterprise also supported us with boxes and preferential rates and we have worked alongside Mission Relief for many years. You can find out more about our partners here.