Serve the City and Team Hope Ireland Partner to Deliver Gift Boxes to Refugees
From Alan McElwee, with Team Hope and Serve the City Ireland: “At a time of tension and some distrust towards refugees, Serve the City Brussels and Berlin partnered with Team Hope Ireland, to distribute around 8,000 Christmas Shoebox gifts to children of refugees in Europe. While this may seem like a large distribution process (and it was), ultimately this was about people in Ireland, specifically in counties Galway and Wexford, donating these simple yet practical shoebox gifts to Team Hope, who in turn worked with STC volunteers in Brussels, Berlin, Maastricht and 7 cities in The Netherlands in hand delivering these gifts of joy and love to people in need.
For most of the new refugees arriving in Europe during 2015, estimated to be at least 1 million, this was their first “Christmas” and maybe their first time ever to be given a gift. Team Hope and Serve the City are honoured to be a part of this “welcome” to our new European neighbours. We are privileged to be a part of the Christmas story for these new arrivals, who much like the biblical story of Mary and Joseph, had to travel and then care for their new born child in a strange place, trusting in and depending on the kindness of strangers. And we hope and pray that we can continue to be a part of this story and welcome during 2016.”
Toyota Gives Serve the City Brussels a New Van
Toyota Europe handed over the keys to a new van to STC Brussels in December. This will assist enormously with the logistics of ongoing food and friendship projects with refugees and the homeless in Brussels. Thank you Toyota!
