Written by Katherine Ludwig

Samaritan's Purse Canada is ready for National Dropoff Week for Operation Christmas Child.

This operation is an opportunity for Canadians to give a gift to children in need across the world.

All people need to do is fill a shoebox with toys, school supplies, and hygiene products to be shipped to places like Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Senegal, Guinea, and many other places.

"For many of these Children, these gift-filled shoeboxes will be the first gift that they will ever have received," says Frank King the News Media Relations Manager at Samaritan’s Purse Canada. 

King also asks people to put a personal touch to their boxes, "The other thing we love for folks to put in each box they pack is a note and a photo because it's great for these kids to see, you know who are these people who have packed all these wonderful things for me, so it's really neat to do that."

National Dropoff week is from November 15 to the 21. It's alleged for people to go and drop off their filled shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse Canada to pick up.

To find a local drop-off location, visit samaritanpurse.ca and enter a valid postal code.

 King added that physical drop-off is not the only option.

 "We also have an option where folks can pack shoeboxes online. So, if they go to packabox.ca they can do the whole thing online. They can pick their age groups and their genders. They can pick from a general basket of items they can add to that basket if they want to and then they check out and make their payment and that sort of thing,"

This option is available all year round. People are still asked to upload a note and photo if they're filling out a box online.

People can find more about Operation Christmas Child at the Samaritan's Purse Canada's website.