Poverty is like a punishment for a crime you didn’t commit… especially when we look at the children who suffer these circumstances. Every single child deserves to be loved, to be taken care of… and to enjoy Christmas time.
South Africa (24 August 2015) – The Santa Shoe Box, is an awesome initiative created by Kidz2Kidz that aims to give underprivileged kids just that! Love, care and an amazing Christmas.
The Project is an inspiring community initiative that collects uniquely personalised gifts for underprivileged children. Equally, the project is about parents teaching their own children the Joy of Giving.
The incredible concept originated in Cape Town and has grown in leaps and bounds, with the number of Santa Shoeboxes growing from a humble 180 boxes in 2006 to a record 110,000 last year.
“A gift to be shared with a child from a distinctly vulnerable social background, who may never before have received a gift. The project is unique in that the donor knows the name, age and gender of the child for whom the gift is intended.”
Irene joined Kidz2Kidz as a volunteer in 2007 after she gave up her Physiotherapy practice of 20 years, due to osteoarthritis in her hands.
“The idea of gifts to underprivileged children was discussed at my first meeting. I loved the idea, was given the portfolio and so it started!”
In their first year, the team aimed to do 600 boxes and ended up doing 2000. This seems to be the growth trend as they have surpassed their set goals every year.
Their main focus is children from socially vulnerable backgrounds who would otherwise not receive anything at Christmas time. Applications for children happen from February every year, and the team goes to great lengths to visit & screen the facilities to ensure the boxes go to where they are needed most… more than 40% of all the boxes go to rural children who have mostly never experienced Christmas.
“For most of these children this will be the first time they ever receive a christmas gift.”
With ‘Giving for Good’ as this year’s theme, the heartwarming Santa Shoebox Project will once again kick off in September to take up the challenge of collecting gifts for children from vulnerable social backgrounds. Over the past nine years, 456,004 ‘gifts of joy’ have placed a smile on as many faces of youngsters at orphanages, children’s homes, and care centres across the country as well as Namibia.
This year, the goal is to go beyond this challenge with innovative new initiatives that take ‘giving for good’ beyond the boundaries of the shoebox drive, with the goal of making positive changes in the lives of these children – for good.
“What never fails to amaze me is how passionate the donors get about the project. Individuals and companies alike – they take it on as if it is their own. They have box wrapping parties, make videos and post them on youtube, make hand knitted teddies, write personal notes and place photos of themselves in the box. An emotional connection ignites the moment the donor chooses ‘their’ child’s name off the website. It is beautiful and it restores so much of the faith we seem to lose in our country.”
This is the second year that the Project will be offering the option of a Virtual Box… enabling all the many Santa Shoebox supporters who live overseas, or locals who don’t live close to a Drop-Off or even those who just don’t have the time to shop and pack their own box, to participate and directly affect the plight of our rural children. They’re hoping to grow the Virtual Box concept to reach as many rural children as possible.
“It is always a challenge to reach more rural children, as even though the need is dire, the donor capacity in small towns is very limited. This will be the second year we will be offering the option of a Virtual Box -. We are very excited about our partnership with Pick n Pay this year, as through their online shopping portal, donors now have the opportunity to buy a lovely, prepacked Santa Shoebox.”
The easiest way to get involved is to visit www.santashoebox.org.za and follow the easy steps. The project is also in need of many volunteers around drop-off time (end of October) – registration for volunteers also happens through the website.
Photo Credit: Santa Shoebox
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