Santa Shoebox Project

Santa Shoebox Project SSP collects and distributes personalised gifts of essential items and treats to children in need
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The Santa Shoebox Project originated in Cape Town in 2006 with a humble 180 shoeboxes. In 17 years it has grown in leaps and bounds, with the number of Santa Shoeboxes donated reaching a total of 1 152 587. The shoeboxes are distributed to more than 1000 recipient facilities each year, through more than 60 satellites around South Africa and Namibia. The success of the Project can largely be attrib

uted to its personal nature – donors give gifts to children whose names, ages and genders are known. As most of the operating costs are covered by the Project’s main sponsor PEP, all private donations contribute towards the SSB Legacy. SSB Legacy brings permanent change to the lives of Santa Shoebox beneficiary children and to the impoverished communities in which they live, by establishing new and transforming existing Early Childhood Development Centres in rural South Africa, with the focus on infrastructure & DBE (Department of Basic Education) registration, teacher training, early literacy and water solutions. The project is supported by an extensive network of volunteers across South Africa and Namibia – kind-hearted people who give freely of their time, energy and expertise without remuneration. It also relies on the generous backing of various corporate sponsors pledging monetary or pro bono support. Many companies, involving their staff members pledge Santa Shoeboxes as part of their Corporate Social Investment programmes.

Every child deserves a roof over their head. 🏫A real roof. Over brick-and-mortar walls. Something solid between them and...
02/06/2026

Every child deserves a roof over their head. 🏫

A real roof. Over brick-and-mortar walls. Something solid between them and everything outside - the wind, the cold, the rain and the relentless heat.

Reaiteka Pre-School in Maruping Village, 15 kilometres outside Kuruman, now has that roof. 💖And for 64 children aged three to five, it changes everything.

Previously, twenty-six children were arriving each morning to attend classes in a shack that was an oven in the summer and a freezer in the winter. The other 38 were cramped into two prefab classrooms next door.

When this build is completed, and Reaiteka's doors reopen, children will be separated by age group and every one of them, taught in a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment during what is their most formative years. 🎉

Every child deserves the best start in life, regardless of where they are on the map. Principal Vivian Kilelo and 64 learners are getting there.

Build 8 wouldn't be happening without these incredible partners: Breadline Africa, Centre for Early Childhood Development, Kathu Solar Park, and the community of Maruping.

This is .

Every child deserves to feel like someone is thinking of them with care. 💭💖Like you do, when you walk the aisles and pic...
01/06/2026

Every child deserves to feel like someone is thinking of them with care. 💭💖

Like you do, when you walk the aisles and pick the things that you think will make their little faces light up, to pack into a Shoebox with all your love.

The sweets you chose are gone by Tuesday. The toy will eventually become worn or break. They'll outgrow the clothes faster than anyone would like them to.

But love doesn't break, doesn't fade and can never be outgrown. 🫶

You give them that, with your gift. 💝

And children never forget how you make them feel.
Your gift has a lifelong impact. 🙏

Happy International Children's Day.

He's 3. He's learning his colours, the wall behind him has a crack you can put your hand through. This is where he lear...
29/05/2026

He's 3. He's learning his colours, the wall behind him has a crack you can put your hand through. This is where he learns. This is where he's meant to feel safe.💔

Across South Africa, children spend their days in Early Childhood Development centres housed in unsound structures, no running water, unsafe toilets, nowhere to wash their hands, nowhere to sit, no resources to learn.

🚨Protection is not only what we shield children from. It is also what we build around them.

The Santa Shoebox Project began with a gift in a box. But you cannot keep visiting ECD’s year after year and ignore the floor under the children's feet.

So we started to build. Toilets that they can't fall into. Walls that support watertight roofs. Doors that close. Warm, safe classes for lessons taught by skilled teachers. 📚👩🏾‍🏫

This is what proactive child protection looks like.

Child Protection Week starts today. It’s in our hands to keep our children safe.🫶

Support our legacy work here https://santashoebox.org.za/support-legacy/

Imagine getting your period and having nothing. 💔No pads in the cupboard. No tampon in your bag. No one you ask has any ...
28/05/2026

Imagine getting your period and having nothing. 💔

No pads in the cupboard. No tampon in your bag. No one you ask has any either.

So, you tear up an old T-shirt or layer your underwear with newspaper or a plastic carrier bag. Then imagine sitting through maths like that. Trying to focus. Trying not to move too much.

For many girls, this is their monthly reality and the reason why 1 in 10 girls miss 3-5 days of school every month. Over time, that's weeks of learning lost each year because something as natural as a period became impossible to manage safely and with dignity.

Through our partnership with Subz, you can help change that. 🎉

Our virtual Santa Shoeboxes, are available all year round, and by adding a pack of Subz reusable sanitary pads to your virtual box, you can give a girl access to safe, dignified menstrual care that can last for up to three years.

Learn all about our virtual Santa Shoeboxes here https://santashoebox.org.za/virtual-santa-shoebox/

A period should not stop learning. Period🦹‍♀️

Play is where childhood does some of its most important work.💖🛝In the sandpit. On the swing. Racing through the playgrou...
28/05/2026

Play is where childhood does some of its most important work.💖🛝

In the sandpit. On the swing. Racing through the playground with a friend close behind. Pretending on the pretend tractor.💭

It is where children first learn to dream. Where confidence grows. Where creativity takes shape. Where language, movement, problem solving and connection begin.

What looks like simple fun on the surface is shaping so much beneath it.

Through the Santa Shoebox Legacy Programme, we help create safe spaces where children can play freely, because play is not separate from learning. It is how learning begins.

This World Play Day, we celebrate every child’s right to play, and every teacher and early learning space making that possible. Because when children have room to play, they have room to grow.

🫶Support our legacy work here https://santashoebox.org.za/support-legacy/

Just last week, this was a trench and red earth.Today? Walls. Window frames. Doorways getting ready to welcome little fe...
26/05/2026

Just last week, this was a trench and red earth.
Today? Walls. Window frames. Doorways getting ready to welcome little feet. 💖

For years, 64 children in Maruping spent their days inside a rusted corrugated iron shack and an overcrowded prefab. Too hot in summer. Too cold in winter.

Soon, those frames will hold windows that let in the sunlight, keep out the winter cold, and open wide to the summer breeze. Those walls will create safe, comfortable rooms where children will sing their ABCs and name their colours. And finally, every "look what I made!" will have walls to proudly display it. 🏫

This is Reaiteka Pre School. SSP Legacy's eighth early childhood development centre under construction.

Reaiteka is rising through the shared commitment of Santa Shoebox Legacy, Breadline Africa, Centre for Early Childhood Development, Kathu Solar Park, and the Maruping community itself.

Build eight feels exactly like build one. 🎉We can't wait to see this place full of children.

Read more about our legacy work here: https://santashoebox.org.za/support-legacy/

25/05/2026

🐻A teddy is what a child reaches for when the room is too dark. When the house is too quiet. When something hurts and they don't have words for it yet.

It's a lot, a teddy. 💖

Nikki was working quality control at one of our drop-off points. She was checking every box. Every item. Making sure that every promise made to a child was kept.

Her team noticed something. Every time she picked up a teddy bear, she kissed it. Quick. Then back in the box. Every single one. 😘

She told them she was sending a little love along. Because she knew where they were going. She knew what each teddy was about to become.

Somewhere in South Africa, a child is still pulling it close in the dark. Burying their face in it. Falling asleep holding on.

They'll never know about Nikki. They'll never know about the kiss. They’ll just feel the love it arrived with. Your love and ours. 💖

Share your beautiful story, we’d love to hear it.
https://santashoebox.org.za/tell-us-your-beautiful-story/

22/05/2026

The classroom was already there, hidden in the bin.

In the empty yoghurt cups, the cardboard boxes, the toilet roll inners, and the bread bags. All it needed was someone trained to see it. ♻️🎨⚽

That’s what the Santa Shoebox Project Legacy Programme does.

We train Early Childhood Development teachers in play based learning, equipping them to turn everyday objects into tools that unlock creativity, movement, confidence, language, and problem solving during the years that shape a child’s entire future. 🧩📚

Real learning does not require expensive resources. It requires a trained teacher.

To date, the programme has trained 2 175 teachers and reached more than 182 000 children. 📈❤️

At R2 500 to train one teacher, that works out to roughly R62,50 per child; and that figure reduces with every new class taught.

Few investments in South Africa’s future deliver impact at this scale, or with this kind of staying power.

Teach the teacher. Change the childhood.

Support our legacy work here: https://santashoebox.org.za/support-legacy/

20/05/2026

"I'm so glad I don't have to share my deodorant anymore." 💖

These were the words of a little boy at an Elsies River facility, the moment he opened his Santa Shoebox and found a deodorant inside.

Angela was there. She watched him hold it tightly - his deodorant. Not the family's. His.

A deodorant is small. The dignity it carries is not. 💝

Because dignity can look like the quiet relief of having something personal in a world where everything has to be shared.

These are the moments that remind us what a Santa Shoebox can do.

It can turn an ordinary toiletry item into pride.

This is . It has always been written by you.

Share your beautiful story, we’d love to hear it. 👇
https://santashoebox.org.za/tell-us-your-beautiful-story/

“A safe, proper classroom instead of a shack.” 💖That is what Principal Vivian Kilelo will soon be able to give sixty-fou...
19/05/2026

“A safe, proper classroom instead of a shack.” 💖

That is what Principal Vivian Kilelo will soon be able to give sixty-four, 3-5-year-old children in Maruping Village, 15 kilometres outside Kuruman in the Northern Cape.

For years, 26 children arrived each morning to learn inside a rusted corrugated iron structure that became an oven in summer and a freezer in winter. Another 38 learners were squeezed into two prefab classrooms nearby.

Today, that changes.

Ground has officially been broken on SSP Legacy’s 8th school build; a permanent brick and mortar Early Childhood Development centre where children will finally learn in safe, age-appropriate classrooms.

Reaiteka Pre School is rising through a partnership between Santa Shoebox Legacy, Breadline Africa, Centre for Early Childhood Development, and Kathu Solar Park.

To Chief Kagiso Seupi and the Maruping community, thank you for trusting us with your children and your future. 🙏

As Santa Shoebox Project CEO Deb Zelezniak says:
“It's about dignity. It's about opportunity. It's about the radical, simple idea that a three-year-old in Maruping deserves the same start as a privileged urban child does.”

This is what 20 years of Santa Shoebox looks like.

This is .

Address

PO Box 107, Constantia
Newlands
7848

Opening Hours

Monday 09:00 - 15:00
Tuesday 09:00 - 15:00
Wednesday 09:00 - 15:00
Thursday 09:00 - 15:00
Friday 09:00 - 15:00

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