|
Back in May 2008, a team of five people from Ballymena, Northern
Ireland went out to Romania on a Mission Trip with The Smiles
Foundation. The time spent there inspired us to think about how we
could to more to help the work going on there, especially how we could
bring much needed supplies out with us.
 The
original idea of getting a container organised came about at a family
BBQ attended by John Montgomery. He had been telling the others about
his experiences in Romania as part of the team, and about two main
areas of interest to him –
(1) in his work with disabled children, he had contacts who had said
that they could arrange for hospital beds which were surplus to
requirements could be given to us for Smiles, and
(2) the great need of so many people there for ordinary, day to day
items such as nappies, clothes, toothpaste etc. Carol, his wife
suggested that the whole family circle could encourage their friends
to buy an extra item each week when they were doing their normal
shopping, and over the period of a year, quite a stock of items could
be gathered up. The container could then be filled with the hospital
beds, and the other goods could be packed in around then to fill the
space which was left.
Dave, John’s brother, asked why they could not organise a day at a
local shopping centre to ask all the shoppers to donate items. Dave
had a contact with the manager of the local Tesco store through his
involvement with Radio Cracker – the charity radio station in
Ballymena which supported the building of the Gepiu Centre back in
2006. After contacting Tesco, a day was agreed when we could go along
and hand out the “wish list” - copied from the Smiles Foundation
web-site. A rota of volunteers was drawn up to cover the whole day –
7:30am to 11:00pm – and every person going in to the store was given
the wish list, told what we were hoping to do, and asked if they would
consider buying an item off the list. Many people were even more
generous than we had hoped, depositing a whole bag full of goodies in
the trolleys provided at the exits. Any cash donations were spent in
the store, buying further supplies of nappies. At the end of the day,
it was estimated that we had gathered up over £8,000 worth of goods,
plus over £800 in cash donations. The rest, as they say, is history.
 Now,
three years later, we are preparing to send out our fourth container,
and a team of 26 folk from Ballymena and Richhill will arrive in Cihei
to unpack the container and leave it ready to be turned into a home
for some needy family.
I hope that this article will inspire some of you to take up the
container challenge, and provide some information as to how we went
about the task of filling the container.
Firstly, how did we organise the collection of goods
and equipment?
Basically, we just told our friends what we were hoping to do and took
every opportunity of publicising our vision of sending out a
container. One of the Radio Cracker volunteers gave us the use of a
store to keep the items in until we had the container sorted. This
then meant we could drop off items as we got them, and then spend a
few hours every now and then sorting them out and packing them into
boxes. We were able to get many new boxes from a friend who worked in
a packing business, and we made sure that all similar items were
packed together, and when the box was full, it was securely taped up
and the contents clearly labelled on the outside. The wish list days
at Tesco and Wyse Byse stores were the highlight events, but so many
times I answered a knock at the front door to find someone with a
couple of boxes of items to go Romania, just because they had heard
about what we were doing.
So what did we learn for the future that might help
others?
(1)
You are not doing this by yourself, or in your own
strength.
Our original hope to fill the vast majority of the first container
with beds and pack boxes of goods in around them went by the wayside
quite early on. John phoned me one evening to say that the beds were
proving more difficult to obtain than first thought because of the
proverbial “red-tape” you encounter when dealing with some
organisations. When we contacted Kevin to tell him about this setback,
he said that Smiles did not need the beds yet as the residential unit
for the elderly and disabled children was still just in the planning
stage. We had been depending on the beds to fill the bulk of the
container, but as it turned out, even without the beds we did not have
enough room to pack everything in, and ended up leaving some boxes in
the store, ready for the next container. Our own plans, no matter how
well thought out, just have to take a back seat when the power of God
takes over.
 (2) Don’t
be afraid to ask.
We did not know where we would get a container for that first time,
but on his way home from work one evening, John was passing the yard
of Blair International Transport run by a man he knew, and felt God
say to him to go in. He spoke to the boss, and in that brief chat, the
man said he would lend us a container and cover the costs if we could
get a driver. When we discussed this later, we approached Sydney
Collins who was a freelance driver. He readily agreed to do it, and
when we went back to Blair International, they were as he used to work
for them. So much so that they not only covered the cost of transport,
but gave Sydney one of their own cabs to pull it - we did not have to
pay a penny towards transport. Even the hassle of transit paperwork
was covered by Blair – a real answer to prayer. Subsequent containers
have been purchased outright so we could leave them in Romania to be
turned into homes for needy families, and again we have found that
engaging people in the work we are doing has opened doors to obtaining
containers at an affordable price.
 (3) Involve
as many folk as you can.
There is a real untapped resource out there – people who want to get
enthused with a vision. If you have been out on a mission trip with
Smiles, take any opportunity to tell people about it. I was fortunate
to be involved with Radio Cracker and I gave many presentations about
the projects we had supported over the years. Using the photos I had
taken in Romania, I did the same thing for Smiles, telling people
about the need there, and how they could help in really simple ways. I
found that many people could relate to the simple needs of the
families supported by Smiles, and when they were donating toothpaste,
nappies, or clothes they knew that their donation would help a child
or family in need. It seemed more personal to them than just giving
money, and many wanted to know more. In fact, many asked if they could
come with us on the mission trip. It is also important to let people
know how you get on when you come back from a mission trip. We
organised a night in church to show photos of our trip and invited
along all those who helped out including the boss of Blair
International and representatives of the Tesco store. People love to
hear how their donations have made a difference to the lives of
others.
 The
importance of using the God-given gifts you have been blessed with was
brought home to me as I came home from my first trip to Romania. I had
seen the needs out there, but knew that I could not source much needed
pharmacy items or disability aids myself, nor was I skilled manually
to do electrical or building work. I was not medically trained to help
out with the doctors as they visited the families in need. However,
through work contacts and the volunteers in Radio Cracker, I was able
to go back out to Romania last May with a container full of much
needed equipment, driven by a local man willing to give up a week’s
work, and with a team of mission trippers that included three nurses,
a man who worked for a disability aids company, the chief pharmacist
of the local Health Service Trust and a teacher and classroom
assistant from local primary schools – people with the skills needed
at that time, but most of all, people with a heart for helping others.
 (4) Use
the Smiles wish list.
There are a number of benefits of doing this.
(a) The wish list idea is much simpler to organise than
bag-packing. Bag-packing requires about 2 people per cash till, and
with about 20 tills in Tesco we would have needed 40 people all day.
It also means that there are a lot of people standing around the till,
and in addition, many people do not like others packing their bags.
The wish list needs about 3 or 4 people handing out the lists and
telling the shoppers what we are doing plus another 2 packing the
goods away into a van for transport to the store. You can set up a
rota so that this can be done for a couple of hours and then others
can take over – this meant that many folk who could not spare a full
day or afternoon could come along for just an hour or two to help out.
As well as handing out the wish-list we were able to hand out Smiles
leaflets provided by our local DA, who was also able to provide
t-shirts and display boards. This led to many opportunities to tell
about the work of Smiles.
 (b)
The store will benefit from increased sales as customers buy an extra
item or two for Smiles in addition to their normal purchases, and this
has led to stores asking us back year after year to have a wish list
day.
(c) Using the wish list ensures that the items for the
container are those most needed by Smiles as they care and provide for
many families in Romania. As the wish list is updated on the Smiles
website, we can be sure that the items we are collecting are those
most needed.
(5)
Don’t waste
space in the container.
 The
cost of purchasing a container and transporting it to Romania is
increasing all the time, making it all the more important to pack as
much as possible into each container. It is worth the time spent in
packing the container properly to make sure that it is packed tightly
to the roof and right to the back doors. We have spent many fun-filled
nights in the store packing boxes in preparation for filling the
container.
Remember too that you can involve Smiles supporters from other areas
to help fill the container – you can half fill it and the send it on
to another area for it to be completed. The first year, the team from
Ballymena ended up with Smiles supporters from other parts of Northern
Ireland coming to help out. They had been told about our efforts by
our local DA, or read about it on the Smiles website, and the boxes of
supplies they had been planning to send in a van at some stage
suddenly had the chance of going in the container. A team from
Richhill (about 50 miles from Ballymena) decided to fill their own
container after helping out with the first Ballymena one.
 Also,
there are always some items in the Leeds store waiting for a means of
getting to Romania which can be collected on the way – just give Dawn
a call and she will be able to help you.
I hope some of the above encourages you to get involved in the
Smiles Container challenge – not only will the families in Romania
benefit from the contents of the container and a family in need will
be able to use it as a new home, but I assure you that you will also
be blessed. We all know that Kevin, Maria and the rest of the Smiles
team will make sure that all the items are put to good use. And if you
do manage to get a container organised, try to get on a Mission Trip
to see the end stage of all your hard work as the contents are
offloaded into the Smiles warehouse and then on to those families who
are most in need. Many of the people who have been on a team have
described it as a life changing experience. It certainly was for me,
and as I write this, I am getting ready to head out again in a week’s
time to help unload our fourth container in as many years.
Adrian
Pogue,
Ballymena (Northern Ireland)
Wish List
Flier
For
printable version of this report (pdf) |
