Kampala — THE World's largest cargo plane will next week jet into Entebbe loaded with the biggest Christmas gift to have ever come into the country.

The gift will go to children who lost their parents to the HIV/AIDS scourge in Uganda. In Sudan, the gifts will go to children orphaned in the long running civil war.

The flight, code named "Operation Christmas Child", will start from New York on December 11 with 80,000 boxes filled with about 9.6 metric tonne-load of gifts collected by the New York-based Samaritan Fund, the Interfax news agency reported yesterday.

The bountiful supply of Christmas gifts will coincide with the climax of a fund raising drive for displaced children in northern Uganda aimed at raising sh660m.

The one-month drive championed by the Christian Children's Fund Uganda, is supported by the Nabagereka of Buganda Sylvia Nagginda.

Donations have been collected by school children around Kampala under a campaign launched by Uganda Red Cross.

The Operation Christmas Child programme has delivered donor gifts to disadvantaged children worldwide for nine years.