The festive season is fast approaching and the Santa Shoebox Project is looking to help more than 75 000 children this year.
For the past 16 years, the project has been collecting and distributing personalised gifts of essential items and treats for underprivileged children throughout South Africa and Namibia, having already brought joy to more than a million children.
Hout Bay resident Deb Zelezniak, CEO of Santa Shoebox Programmes, announced that the project had received a pledge for every single child on their lists.
“Thanks to the generosity of our donors we will be reaching in excess of 75 000 children this year, taking the total reached to around 1.15 million,” she said.
Ms Zelezniak said this year’s theme, Share The Love, encouraged donors to include a duplicate of one or more of the eight required items, empowering the beneficiary child to also be a giver of a gift, not only a receiver.
“Underprivileged children with fragile access to the bare necessities, may never have experienced the joy of giving for themselves and yet so often hear that sharing is caring,” she said.
Many of Hyprop’s shopping centres having been involved in the initiative for a decade or more and this year the campaign will be carried across all eight of their retail properties, among which are Canal Walk and Cape Gate. The Hyprop Foundation has also contributed R350 000 to the continued training of Early Childhood Development teachers under the auspices of the Santa Shoebox Legacy.
Hyprop’s brand and campaigns marketing manager, Christie Stanbridge, who is spearheading this year’s drive, said: “South Africans have big hearts and in the build-up to the end-of-year celebrations, we hope we can all come to together to help children who need some extra cheer and joy in their lives over the festive season.”
Throughout September, shoppers visited the Santa Shoebox website and registered their pledges, choosing the child they wish to give a gift to, then collected an empty shoebox, from the shopping centres, with the first five boxes being free of charge and thereafter, R5 a box. Completed boxes were then dropped off at customer service desks during October at each of the centres.
“The psycho-social benefits of a child receiving a Santa Shoebox brimful of brand new items are enormous,” said Ms Zelezniak.
“While many may not view a toothbrush, toothpaste, facecloth or soap as gift items, for an underprivileged child who may never had their very own toothbrush for example, these are invaluable, not only as basic essentials to which everyone should of course have access, but as items in support of self confidence and self esteem.”
Ms Zelezniak said the biggest challenges they are faced with when it comes to the project remains always logistics. “The project needs a permanent home in both Johannesburg and in Cape Town,” she noted.
“With the rising costs of fuel, our generous transport sponsors are finding it ever more difficult to allocate space on their trucks, so we invite additional trucking companies to come on board to share the load.”
She added that Ford had sponsored two branded passenger vehicles, but the project could benefit from having a loading vehicle or two in the fleet.
“Impoverished children are usually given hand-me-downs or shared items – a Santa Shoebox contains only new, unused, age-appropriate items, chosen for the specific beneficiary child who receives the very box pledged to her by a specific donor. It’s personal. The ethos of the project is that every child is valuable, and as deserving of access to quality products and services as the next. By giving underprivileged children poor-quality or used items, people are unwittingly entrenching the cycle of poverty. This project uplifts those same children,” Ms Zelezniak said.
To get involved with the project, you can email info@santashoebox.org.za
