“Every year our parents ask, ‘What do you want for Christmas? Write it on a chit and Santa will get it for you’. And whatever you wish for, you get on the Christmas eve. This year, we wanted to help the needy and the underprivileged,” says Ruby Molly Mathews, a student of Shadan College of Engineering and Technology. And that’s the story behind “Gift of Love”.
Started by the youth community and other members of St Andrews Mar Thoma Syrian Church, Secunderabad, “Gift of Love” is a project where empty boxes were placed all around the church since November. The members were then asked to leave presents, whatever they desired, in those boxes.
“If you haven’t used something for three years, chances are you are never going to use it again. Keeping this fact in mind, we encouraged the members to donate things that they haven’t used for a long time. We got brand-new and also second-hand goods like blankets, winter clothing, crockery etc., but all in excellent shape. We had a roomful of presents and it took us three days to segregate and gift wrap them,” says Melwin Sam, a student of CMR Engineering College.
“We tend to buy a lot of things and then don’t use them for a long time and that’s what we asked people to keep aside and donate,” says Toni Christo Abraham, a student of Loyola Academy. “This initiative is not just for our church, I have been asking a lot of my friends too to donate. The response has been amazing,” he adds.
The presents will be distributed to a nearby village on December 26.
