Santa Shoebox Project

Old enough to worry about a job interview. Young enough to light up over a gift in a shoebox.💖

For a lot of South African teenagers, both are true at once. When the smartest clothes you own are a school uniform, a first job interview becomes something to dread.

So, when a Grade 11 boy opened his Santa Shoebox and found in it a shirt and a tie - something to wear into that interview with his head held high, he cried.

That was just one box, and it made a teenager feel like he could take on the world.
Over the past 20 years, the Santa Shoebox Project has reached more than 1.5 million children, tens of thousands of whom were Grade 11 learners.

📣When pledging opens on 1st September, please consider choosing an older child. 🙏

Team pledges open on the 1st of August. If you would like pledge up to 20 boxes as a corporate or private group, you can find out more about this here 👇https://santashoebox.org.za/team-pledges/

LADUUUUMA! 🇿🇦

Somewhere in South Africa, a child is watching Bafana Bafana and dreaming. Of the ball at their feet. The flag on their chest. The moment a whole nation rises and roars their name.

Dreams often begin like this. In a living room. On a dusty field. With someone in green and gold showing a child what might be possible.

That same belief lives inside every Santa Shoebox. The message that a child matters, their dreams matter, and their future is worth backing.

Tonight, we cheer for Bafana Bafana. We cheer for every child watching. We cheer for the dreams taking shape all across our country.

Play with heart. Make us proud. Hulle weet nie wat ons weet nie! 💚💛

⚽ LADUUUUUMAAAA!

Some of the most important parts of a building are the ones no one ever sees. 😍

This week at Reaiteka Pre-School, the ceiling went in - boards overhead and a layer of insulation behind them. The children will never see it, but it’s one of the parts that matters most.

Maruping sits 15 kilometres outside Kuruman, in the Northern Cape, and right now it’s winter there. For years, 26 of Reaiteka’s little ones started their mornings in a rusted corrugated iron shack that was a freezer in winter. A cold classroom isn’t just uncomfortable. Children who are freezing can’t concentrate and they get sick more often. 💔

This layer is what holds the warmth in, so that 64 three-, four- and five-year-olds can spend their winter mornings learning instead of shivering. 🥳

This is build eight for SSP Legacy, alongside Breadline Africa, Centre for Early Childhood Development, Kathu Solar Park, and the community of Maruping.

Follow Reaiteka’s story with us, week by week. Support the work that makes it possible: https://santashoebox.org.za/support-legacy/