Children in orphanages in Ukraine and Moldova will have some Christmas presents to open this year thanks to pupils from Dover College who took part in the Love in a Box charity programme.

The youngsters, aged from three to 18, had filled shoe boxes with small items such as toys, puzzles, toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap.

They will be distributed to Eastern European countries where some children are so poor all they possess is their clothes.

Headmaster Gerry Holden told the pupils; “These children don’t receive any other gifts at Christmas – sometimes the only thing they receive from one year to the next is their Love in a Box.

The boxes are sent abroad through the Mustard Seed Relief Mission which is celebrating its 20th year of mission work.

Dover College pupils filled more than 250 boxes this year, some of them containing some of their own toys which they had donated.