Santa Shoebox Project
What does your company do?
The Santa Shoebox Project originated in Cape Town in 2006 with a humble 180 shoeboxes. Since that time the number of Santa Shoeboxes donated has reached a total of 1 301 508. The shoeboxes are distributed to underprivileged children attending more than 1 000 educational and care facilities each year, via 60+ volunteer-run satellites throughout South Africa and Namibia.
Every Santa Shoebox is pledged by a donor for a particular child, chosen by the donor from our website by name, age, gender (we also provide the child's clothing size), living in or around the donor's community. We have an award-winning IT system ensuring this, and enabling donors to track their pledges all the way to the moment their Shoebox is handed to the intended child. It's (still) MAGIC!
In 2020 we reached our milestone millionth shoebox and commenced with projects which create lasting socio-economic change in the communities in which our beneficiary children live. The SSP Legacy was established, focussing on three pillars within early childhood development – Build, Learn and Read.
We are about to break ground on the 6th pre-school we're building, named Siphiwe Samangwe, to be handed to the community of uThukela in rural KZN on the 26th of July. We've trained 1 529 ECD practitioners and installed 223 reading hubs in un- or under-resourced ECD centres. In total the number of children impacted by SSP Legacy work (so far) is 125 830.
What is your biggest success?
To establish the Virtual Santa Shoebox business model within the Project, ensuring its financial sustainability, amplifying its reach into the realms of Socio Economic Development. The work we do within the Early Childhood Development sector is what will bring South Africa to her full potential.
What has been your biggest hurdle?
Explaining to the world that a Santa Shoebox is not "just" a frivolous gift. I know we're winning, because of the up-scaling of support the Project receives from multi-nationals and people of influence.
