WATCH: Santa Shoebox Project supports organisations during the Covid-19 crisis

Now in its 15th campaign, South Africa?s best-loved children’s charity the Santa Shoebox Project has touched the lives of 957 297 underprivileged children throughout South Africa and Namibia.

With annual reach extending to up to 100 000 children, the project will be receiving and handing out its one million Shoebox in 2020. For the past three years, as part of the project’s March To A Million, private donations have been accruing with the view to make a significant difference to the impoverished communities in which Santa Shoebox beneficiary children live.

What better time than right now, in the throes of Covid-19, to alleviate suffering and uplift lives in the hardest-hit areas of South Africa

“With this in mind, Santa Shoebox founder Irené Pieters has extended the project funding to organisations doing meaningful work in line with the UN Sustainability Development Goals.

Irené said, “Santa Shoebox goes to great lengths to find and serve rural children, who receive aid from neither government nor large NPOs. During these uncertain times, the children and their families suffer the same devastating effects as those living in urban parts of the country, with the impact worsening the already dire circumstances.”

Much of what is being done right now in response to Covid-19 is a relief, not a solution. We balanced our donations to address both the preserving of lives and that of livelihoods.

“Our legacy project #beyondtheshoebox is aimed at food security, income generation, education, infrastructure support, gender-based violence, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean electricity and climate action; Covid-19 has accelerated and re-prioritised the project’s goals.”

For detailed information about each donation, please visit the Santa Shoebox Project Facebook page.

Watch Irené’s address here: