For thousands of families throughout  London and Essex the festive period bring stress, worry and desperation instead of excitement, joy and magic.

 

​The cost-of-living crisis on top of previous financial hardship means many children will not receive anything from Santa.

 

The shoe boxes full of gifts may be the ONLY present their receive this year! Through years of working alongside 26 families hostels across Essex and the Capital we have built a robust donation system. Every year we are provided with the exact number of children and their age groups in each hostel. This data allows us to provide the right amount of age appropriate presents for each site.

 

Every year the numbers of children in our hostels grow,  because of this we are always in need of the donations from our community to fulfil this Christmas miracle.  

We are only able to accept presents that are new with tags/ in original packaging. As this is potentially their only gift, we ask for a box to be filled with good quality presents that they will be proud to show to their friends in the playground. ​

 

​We are always client led and have had a consultation with residents across a number of our hostels, as a result this year we have altered the age brackets of the presents to the below;​

 

AGE:

• 0-2

• 3-6

• 7-12

• 13-16

• 17-18 ​​( Young Parents)

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There are 3 main ways to help us this Christmas; 

 

1 - If you wish to organize a group donation through your work place, education facility or family group please contact the team for promotional posters and flyer. Contact us at info@smilelondonessex.com sign up sheet that will need to be completed and returned to the office team. ​​ ​​

 

2 - Sponsor a box, and we can purchase items required (Babies/Primary School Ages £20.00/ Senior £25.00 per box)​ - ​​​You can also donate funds for this appeal via our PayPal Charity Donation Platform.

 

3 - Share our Social media posts, this is FREE and Easy and will help us reach as many people as we can.  

 

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