BOYS and girls from Tilbury had a special Christmas surprise this week when they made a visit to Amazon's Fulfilment Centre in Tilbury to take part in a Christmas-themed day of STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) fun with Barnardo's.

The children, who are part of the Barnardo's Essex Child and Wellbeing service, visited the site with the charity, along with other Essex youngsters, as part of a programme called Amazon Future Engineer.

Amazon Future Engineer is one of several STEM programmes run by Amazon in the UK and is aimed at inspiring, educating and enabling 10,000 children to try computer science over the next two years. Amazon's STEM programmes are endorsed by the British Science Association.

During their visit to Amazon, the boys and girls visited Santa's Grotto and took part in a Christmas-themed STEM workshop where they programmed their very own robots, had a tour of the fulfilment centre, and learned about technology.

The children also took part in Hour of Code, a one-hour introduction to computer science designed to demystify code, to show that anybody can learn the basics. Anyone can take part, for free, at Hour of Code.

At the end of their special tour, the children had a Christmas party with some of the team at Amazon in Tilbury and Father Christmas. Following the event, the boys and girls took home their own STEM-themed Christmas presents, which included LEGO sets and activity books.

During the Christmas visit, Amazon also announced that it had made a donation of £30,000 to Barnardo's to help the charity continue its work with vulnerable children across the UK. The donation will support Barnardo's work transforming the lives of vulnerable children, young people and families across the UK.

Sertac Yilmaz, General Manger at Amazon in Tilbury, added: "Barnardo's mission to transform the lives of the vulnerable children in our society really strikes a chord with Amazon and it's an honour to partner with them for the Christmas STEM activity. Our team had a great time welcoming the boys and girls to our fulfilment centre and it was amazing to see the joy on their faces as they programmed robots, met Father Christmas and opened their presents.

"We share the charity's vision to create a brighter future for our children and I hope the boys and girls enjoyed their visit to Amazon. On behalf of everyone at Amazon in Tilbury, I'd like to wish the children and the team at Barnardo's a very Merry Christmas."

Paddy Griffiths, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Barnardo's said: "I'd like to say a big thank you to Sertac and the team for hosting this special event for our children and to the wider Amazon team for the incredibly generous donation. It's fantastic to get support like this from a company like Amazon and I hope the visit to the fulfilment centre has a lasting impact on the children."

The event and donation forms part of the 'Amazon in the Community' programme whereby the company supports the communities around its operating locations across the UK.