Citizen Church has participated in a series of “love your neighbour” charity activities this Christmas, involving the delivery of gift boxes to support vulnerable people during the pandemic.
Over 3000 isolated students, single parents, refugees and homeless people in Cardiff are receiving Christmas gift boxes and festival cheer through a church charity campaign.
Citizen Church has cooperated with the HTB Church, to run a series of “love your neighbour” charity activities this Christmas, involving the delivery of gift boxes to vulnerable people. Through the campaign, the churches hope to share messages of love and hope during the pandemic.
“We really care about the refugees and asylum seeker families,” said Charis Britton, one of the heads of the campaign, “That is why we wanted to do something for them.”
“We know that sometimes people forget about those who can afford these goods. We don’t just buy these gifts because people cannot afford it, we want to show that we care and we love people. We do not want anyone to feel forgotten in this hard year.”
All the gifts are found by the charity or donated by people in the community. People are able to donate to an Amazon wish list organized by the church, in which they can add their chosen gifts to be added to the boxes.
In an attempt to raise funds and awareness for the project, the church campaigners drove around in a charity coffee van, encouraging members of the community to donate money via text to help finance the project.
“We had some lovely volunteers, some of it is through friendship and a lot of it is through them just knowing our church and what we are doing,” said Bri, who operates the Church’s Instagram page. “ We put stuff on our Instagram and then people would message and ask to help us.”
“I joined them because my church partnered with them to serve the community that it is a part of. It is something I am passionate about,” said Sam Robinson, one of the campaign volunteers. “It was a great opportunity to show people that we care about them and want them to feel special despite all the difficulties of the pandemic.”
The campaign successfully ended this Thursday afternoon after the last deliveries were sent to refugees, asylum seeker families and hospitals. To find out more about the Citizen Church’s activities or to get in contact, please visit https://www.citizenchurch.org.uk/