Bring joy to a child during the festive season and participate in the 2019 Santa Shoebox Project, a non-profit-making organisation that has been collecting gifts at Christmas time for thousands of underprivileged children since 2006.
The target for the Garden Route for 2019 is 1500 shoeboxes, to be dispatched to more than 10 creches and schools who are in desperate need of assistance. This year we are starting early, so please get on board.
The heart-warming Santa Shoebox Project is an initiative of the Kidz2Kidz Trust (IT2671/2009), a registered Public Benefit (PBO 930031301) and Non Profit Organisation (NPO 102-098) with Section 18A status, that offers assistance to children in need.
With ‘teach your child the joy of giving’ as the essence of the project, the Santa Shoebox Project is instrumental in involving people from all walks of life, especially children together with their parents, in giving to children from a distinctly vulnerable social background who may never have received a Christmas gift before. Parents are encouraged to involve their kids who then personally choose and fill the gift boxes and then decorate and label each with the recipient’s name.
The Santa Shoebox Project is supported by an extensive network of volunteers across South Africa and Namibia. It also relies on the kind backing of various corporate sponsors pledging monetary or pro bono logistics support, while many companies involve their staff members to pledge Santa Shoeboxes as part of their Corporate Social Investment programmes.
Uniquely, the donor knows the first name, age, gender, and care institution of the child the gift was bought for. The Santa Shoebox Project not only manages the network and distributes the gifts but also provides content guidelines for each individual gift box, to ensure that every child receives an age appropriate gift. Typically this will comprise of some necessities, such as toothpaste and toothbrush, face cloth and soap, as well as some sweets, educational supplies, a toy and an outfit of clothing.
Many people have a desire to contribute to their community or do their ‘little bit for charity’ but often don’t know where to start. The Santa Shoebox Project takes pride in channelling all that positive energy and goodwill into something that is credible, achievable, makes a real difference in the lives of individual children, and leaves the donor with the satisfying feeling of having brought joy to a child during the Festive Season.
How can you get involved? We need volunteers and donors so that we can all make a bigger difference to the needy children in our communities. If you want to get involved, please call or whatsapp Petrisna (0823324776) or Jolindy (0827809209) or email us on jolindy@santashoebox.org.za.
