Five years ago, a group of about 10 people came together in 2015 and started working on the project aimed at children who come from disadvantaged communities, the project focuses on assisting them with school shoes.
Over the years, it has seen a growing number of people lending a hand to the needy. Brian Dube, Secretary at 1 Million School Shoes said they wanted to use the campaign to help African children.
“We want to make a contribution in terms of building our communities. Our communities are faced with a lot of challenges and we decided to focus on the area of education to be able to assist and provide a learner with school shoes to boost their morale, confidence and belief in themselves,” said Dube.
“We want to impact every African child who aspires to a pair of school shoes and ensure that we help them not only by providing school shoes but by also instilling a sense of dignity in an African child that ‘you can do it despite your current difficult conditions,” he added.
Before the NGO was formally established, the small group of good Samaritans were already providing school shoes to needy learners. The self-funded group managed to acquire 250 school shoes and gave them to pupils at Ikageng Itieleng Aids Ministry in Orlando West, Soweto.
From there, the group saw the potential of their efforts and officially set up the 1 Million School Shoes NGO, which went on to get 800 school shoes to deliver to children in 2016. So far, the project has given 150,000 children school shoes in townships and rural areas across the country.
Dube confirmed that the NGO had received contributions from ordinary citizens, organisations, business people and private companies. To donate towards this amazing cause, contact Dube on 082-418-3389.
