The Christmas elves at The Angel Network are already hard at work, rallying support to fill hundreds of backpacks for vulnerable children ahead of the approaching school year!
South Africa (05 October 2026) – The Angel Network has started rallying support for its annual Christmas Back to School Backpacks drive!
Every year before Christmas, the organisation calls on its community to help fill hundreds of backpacks with stationery, snacks, toiletries, lunch boxes and water bottles. Each one is then given to a vulnerable child who could use a little extra support ahead of the new school year.
For many South African families, January brings a long list of expenses all at once. There are school supplies to buy, uniforms to sort out, transport costs to consider and lunch boxes to fill. This can become a heavy burden in households already stretching every rand.
The Angel Network aims to ease that pressure by supporting the children.
The organisation is a community-driven non-profit that steps in wherever help is needed most. It has been operating for a decade now, providing everything from food relief and disaster response to education support, shelter assistance and wider community upliftment.
Working hand in hand with volunteers and donors, it essentially acts as a bridge between people who want to help and communities that need it.
Last year, the backpack drive sparked plenty of smiles, with a total of 520 backpacks reaching children over the festive season!
A pencil case, lunch box or packet of toiletries may seem like fairly ordinary things, they can mean a great deal to a child who often goes without.
Having the right stationery means being able to participate in class without having to borrow from someone else. A proper backpack gives a learner somewhere safe to keep their books. A lunch box and water bottle are everyday items many children don’t have.
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Alongside the practical help, every backpack becomes Christmas gift packed especially for a child and filled with things that belong to them.
Each R350 donation helps provide one of these backpacks, giving a young learner the essentials they need for the year ahead while adding a little Christmas joy to a festive season in which they may otherwise receive very little.
And if this year’s community can match – or even better, outdo – the 520 backpacks filled last year, hundreds more children will be heading into 2027 with one less thing to worry about.
If you’d like to support the drive, find out more here.
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