Sometimes a little hope is all you need to keep living, according to Yves Dushime, a refugee originally from Rwanda who now calls Buffalo, New York, home.

Dushime was originally supposed to tour the Golden Triangle recently as part of his duties as an Operation Christmas Child spokesman. The rise in COVID cases caused Samaritan’s Purse, which runs the program, to make Dushime’s visit with OCC-supporting organizations virtual.

Dushime was scheduled to visit Mississippi State and Grace Presbyterian Church, in Starkville; Mount Zion Baptist Church, in Columbus; and South Louisville Baptist Church, in Louisville.

When he was 11 years old, Dushime, who lived in Togo at the time, received an OCC shoebox. That box — filled with school supplies, little toys and a scarf — changed his life.

Beforehand, hatred was the only thing Dushime knew. His family was targeted in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 in which an estimated 1 million people were killed. Dushime’s mother was eight months pregnant at the time their family’s home was attacked — by neighbors who lived down the street.

History books note that during the genocide’s 100 days, armed militias slaughtered members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa. Dushime said the “tribes” were labels placed on the native Rwandans during Dutch colonization. There are no physical characteristics that distinguish people as being from one group or another.

“The only way for people to know who was from which group was if they knew them beforehand,” he said in an interview. “It was friends killing friends.”

For Dushime, who grew up as a son of a pastor, the genocide did not make sense. It was unjustified and contradicted his family’s Christian beliefs. Of Rwanda’s population of about 5 million people, about 4.5 million of them claim to be Christian, Dushime said.

“Vast majority of the people were believers, so (the genocide) was not an attack on religion,” he said. “As I grew up, I began to understand that I would never come to know my grandparents, uncles and aunts, who were unduly killed for the crime of being born in a certain group. It wrecked me. I saw the world in a negative way that guided me for a long time.”

Dushime said he spent part of his youth reading and learning about the genocide, hoping to make sense of it. His family moved from refugee camp to refugee camp, sometimes narrowly escaping persecution or leaving after governments planned to close refugee settlements, before coming to the United States.

“I had a hatred for humanity. During the Rwadan genocide, the entire world had 100 days to come in and help,” he said. “Not one country lifted a finger until it was too late. Countries sent in planes to take back their embassy staff. But they couldn’t take us with them. It made it hard to grow up in a Christian home. … My parents tried to tell me and my brothers to love our neighbors as ourselves. I’d think, ‘How can you love your neighbors when they killed your parents?’”

Shoebox’s gifts
After his parents fled Rwanda, Dushime was born in a refugee camp in Congo. They eventually left that camp and several others before arriving in Togo. It was there where OCC dropped off 300 shoeboxes at the church Dushime’s father served.

Dushime has fond memories of some of the items he got: a Hot Wheels car that had doors that opened and school supplies. A little yellow tub contained Play Doh, which he had never seen before. He mistakenly ate some out of curiosity and still remembers its awful taste.

The most impactful part of the box was a sticky note that read, “God loves you. Jesus loves you. I love you.”

The note showed Dushime two things: If a total stranger could demonstrate kindness and love toward him, he had no excuse not to do the same to those closest to him.

“I thought I had justified my hatred,” he said. “If those people who wrote the note had no clue who I was, I wondered how much more of an impact could I have on those closest to me if I just opened my heart?”

It also showed him a new way of seeing the world.

“There is such positivity in life,” Dushime said. “The hatred was stripped away. That would not have been possible if people didn’t pack the shoebox.”
Dushime still has one item from that shoebox, a plaid scarf with hints of gray, purple and tan. The scarf was useless in Togo, where it’s 90 degrees all year round.

In 2008, about three years after he received the shoebox, his family’s application to be resettled by the United Nations was approved. They moved to Buffalo, New York, where Dushime still lives.

“Before we stepped off the plane in 2008, we never felt air that cold,” Dushime said. “Something clicked in my head and I pulled out the scarf from my backpack. I was so happy to have that scarf.”

Reconnecting with OCC
In 2014, Dushime reconnected with Operation Christmas Child. He was attending college in Philadelphia and went to an event in which he found a booth with dozens of OCC shoeboxes. The group was sending out shoeboxes and also seeking volunteers. He started volunteering with the group and eventually became an OCC spokesperson.

“Everyone needs to know that the hard work they put into packing shoeboxes matters,” he said. “Everyone deserves to know how much of an impact they’re having on the lives of children and families all around the world.”

Shoeboxes’ impact
Dinah Smith, of Louisville, is an OCC project manager at South Louisville Baptist Church. She also serves as a volunteer drop-off leader for Samaritan’s Purse. Part of her duties include gathering shoeboxes from locations in her designated area, packaging them and delivering them to the regional distribution hub, which is usually in Columbus.

In 1995, she and her daughter started packing shoeboxes. It evolved into a family tradition. She has seen the impact packing shoeboxes has on people.

“You get a feeling that you’ll make a difference for that child that you’re packing a shoebox for,” Smith said. “A lot of the children receiving the box have undergone trauma, natural disaster and economic hardship.”

Her church collects items once a month for shoeboxes and hosts shoebox-packing parties every year in October. In 2018, the congregation packed about 100 boxes. In 2020, they packed 198.

“It’s a tangible way to show God’s love to a child,” Smith said. “We also try to put in a card or personal correspondence that tells them we love them, that God loves them.”

Smith was an educator for over 30 years, mostly in kindergarten and first and second grades. Helping children is her favorite ministry, she said.
“It’s definitely a wonderful feeling to see shoeboxes come in,” she said of her church’s packing parties. “Each shoebox represents a child who will be positively impacted.”

Dushime said he meets other people who received shoeboxes as children during some of his speaking engagements.

“It’s almost like a reunion,” he said. “Only they understand how it feels to be completely forgotten by the world and to have this injection of color into your black and white life from a shoebox.”

Since 1993, over 188 million shoebox gifts have been collected for children in over 160 countries and territories. OCC’s National Collection Week is Nov. 15-22, but local drop-off locations will be announced in late October online at samartianspurse.org/occ .

Shoeboxes bring hope
Dushime noted that during the pandemic, the shoeboxes are needed more than ever. Prior to the interview, he gave a speech virtually to a group in Jackson. Samaritan’s Purse, which runs OCC, opened a field hospital there to help with the influx of COVID patients.

“I was at a virtual event in Jackson organized by a volunteer team. Two of their members died of COVID in the same week,” he said. “I thought how can you be doing this right now after your friends have died. But they believe in the cause.

“It makes me think about how we have access to modern medicine, all of these things, yet we are in so much pain.”

“Now more than ever, the message of hope is needed across the world,” he said. “It is time to send out messages of hope, as many as we can, as soon as we can. … In its most powerful form, hope makes a huge difference.”

Dushime said he couldn’t understate how his shoebox impacted his life.

“One of the biggest reasons I’m talking with you is because of the shoebox,” he said. “It’s impact changed my heart and allowed me to grow to be the person I am today.”

Operation Christmas Child
■ Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected over 188 million shoebox gifts for children in over 160 countries and territories. Its National Collection Week is Nov. 15-22, but local drop-off locations will be announced in late October online at samartianspurse.org/occ .