By Levy Masiteng
The Santa Shoebox Project has opened its 2026 pledging season, with the children’s charity aiming to deliver festive-season Shoeboxes to more than 80,000 children as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.
A total of 84,663 children’s names were made available for pledging when the campaign opened this week.
The Cape Town-based project said the milestone year would be marked by an ambitious collective goal of bringing joy to thousands of children across South Africa.
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“A pledge is a promise made to a specific child,” Santa Shoebox Project CEO Deb Zelezniak said.
The project’s 2026 campaign centres on the theme #WhatAPledgeStarts.“When someone chooses a child by name, age, and gender, they aren’t just shopping for supplies. They are creating an experience where a child in their community, whom they’ve never met, feels important and loved,” Zelezniak said.
The pledging process begins when donors visit the Santa Shoebox website and select a specific child. Donors are provided with details including the child’s name, age, gender and clothing size, allowing them to put together a personalised Shoebox.
Once the Shoeboxes have been prepared, local volunteers receive them at designated drop-off points during October and November.
The boxes are inspected for safety before being sorted according to the beneficiary facilities they are destined for.
The Shoeboxes are then handed over to children at schools and care facilities during November and December.
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Each Santa Shoebox contains eight specified items: soap, a washcloth, toothpaste, a toothbrush, new clothing, educational supplies, a toy and sweets.
The organisation said the items were intended to address practical needs while also giving children an experience centred on dignity, excitement and joy.
“The children carry that feeling in their hearts, and many, once they are grown up, pay it forward to another child,” Zelezniak said.
The project also offers Virtual Santa Shoeboxes throughout the year, with surplus funds from their sale and other donations supporting its SSP Legacy programme, which includes early childhood development infrastructure, teacher training and reading initiatives.
Established in 2006, the Santa Shoebox Project says its work has reached more than 1.5 million children through its Shoebox and Legacy programmes.
This year, its SSP Legacy programme completed its eighth school build at Reaiteka Pre School in Maruping in the Northern Cape, while the organisation plans to build more rural schools during the coming decade.
“The Santa Shoebox Project is one big #beautifulstory – made up of more than a million and a half beautiful chapters of giving and receiving joy since 2006,” Zelezniak said.
This year, 10,000 Snugglehead toys were ordered from Kya Crafts, an upliftment and skills-development project run by NPO Project Purpose.
The latest order brought the total number of handcrafted toys ordered from the initiative to 27,400.
Other organisations Santa Shoebox has partnered or collaborated with include Book Dash, ORT SA Cape, The Reach Trust, Breadline Africa, the Centre for Early Childhood Development, Singekwenza and Taking Care of Business, as well as numerous crèches and early childhood development centres.
Supporters can also contribute to the project’s longer-term work by selecting the Santa Shoebox Project as their cause through Woolworths’ MyDifference programme, allowing them to support its Legacy initiatives at no additional cost when shopping.
“With 70 drop-off points around the country, in every single province, and thousands of volunteers and donors making the magic happen, we are truly grateful for the collective impact of our incredible community,” Zelezniak said.
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