Pledge a Santa Shoebox for a Child in Need this Festive Season
It’s a little early to be talking about Christmas but this year, SA’s most well-known children’s charity, The Santa Shoebox Project, has pledged to open one month earlier in August. That’s right, don’t wait until Christmas time to give back, get your good deeds in early this year. Through Santa Shoebox donors are able to pledge a shoebox filled with necessities and a few goodies to underprivileged children, and now there’s more time to do so!
Established 12 years ago, The Santa Shoebox Project has touched the lives of over 750,000 underprivileged kids throughout South Africa and Namibia. The organisation receives filled shoe boxes from kind hearted South Africans and delivers them to the children during the Christmas period, putting smiles on thousands of little faces.
The process involves donors filling a decorated shoebox with 8 items: a toothbrush and toothpaste, soap, facecloth, school supplies, a toy, sweets and an outfit of children’s clothing. This year there are also 4000 Virtual Santa Shoeboxes on offer so donors who live far from drop-off points can go online to select the contents of the shoebox which will then be packed by Santa Shoebox volunteers – everyone can make a difference. There’s also the option of a generic Shoebox which the project delivers to children in remote rural areas that are not easily accessible.
This year, pledges will open an entire month earlier – on 1 August 2018 – to allow more time for donations and to avoid the Christmas rush. The organisation hopes to receive over 115 000 boxes this year based on the success of last year’s project.
Get involved and register as a Santa Shoebox supporter here! For more details about pledging, drop-off points and what to put in the box, visit the Santa Shoebox website.