A community organisation is appealing for vouchers to allow those struggling with the dignity of choosing Christmas gifts for their loved ones this year.
The Ardoyne Association made the appeal as part of the Christmas with Dignity initiative it ran for the first time last year.
Its funding options are more limited this year and the Association is now appealing for people to help out if they can.
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Laura Ward from the Association said: "We were lucky to secure toys through Cash for Kids for 300 children this year, but when you put that into perspective across five centres and other bodies, 300 children is not an awful lot of families.
"So obviously we're limited then to who we can help this year.
"If people want to donate, dropping off vouchers to any of our centres good, or we have a PayPal account too.
"We have had some people come in and donate this week which has been brilliant and we are trying to get the stuff out as soon as we get it in."
Laura said the focus on vouchers was to ensure that people could be afforded the choice of what they would like to buy, or would need for Christmas.
"We're asking for vouchers for the likes of ASDA, Tesco, Iceland," she said.
"We've had some from the local butchers for example, which is great then because at least if someone has half of their dinner there, that's a bit of a lift.
"We're seeing referrals coming in from all walks of life - it's not just people on benefits, it's not just the usual people we're seeing.
"There's a lot of working poor, a lot of young, single people under 25 or couples who are both working but didn't get any help from the cost of living payments.
"They're struggling, they're struggling really badly.
"It's just sad this year that we can't help as much as we did last year."
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