Still time to pledge a Santa Shoebox

This year's target of nearly 70 000 boxes is well over double last year's 32 000 - and the challenge of collecting and then distributing them shows exactly why volunteer projects of this size need world-class organisational skills.

The Santa Shoebox helper system that forms part of the Santa Shoebox website enables potential donors to browse the entire list of beneficiaries to choose the facilities and children they would like to make up boxes for.

"Many donors choose children of the same age and gender as their own children," says national co-ordinator Irené Pieters. "Others just like knowing the name of the child who will receive their box. There is also an option to donate a generic box, either to replace one that never arrives or as a gift for a child who arrived at the facility after we created the database."

Delivery to drop off points a challenge

Making the website easy to use has been critical, says Mike Steyn, director of Aspire Solutions. "Once donors have registered on the site they are automatically emailed the bar coded gift tags they need to stick onto their boxes. That makes the collection and delivery process, later on, much easier."

But in some ways, the real challenges only begin once donors have signed up. "This year we have 36 drop-off points around the country," says Pieters. "One of our biggest challenges is getting all the boxes delivered to the drop off points on time so that our volunteer teams can scan the bar codes, check the contents and pack them into cartons for delivery."

This year Pieters and her team were provided with GPS co-ordinates and directions as well as a street address for each drop-off. "We have more than 600 facilities to deliver to and finding them isn't always easy," says Pieters. "There are 60 in Khayelitsha alone and they often don't have clear addresses. We physically visit every facility before we add it to our list, but next year we hope to map them all as well."

"Once every facility is mapped it will be much easier to produce way bills and printed maps for the couriers," explains Steyn. "Putting the maps on the web will also make it possible for donors to see exactly where their boxes are going."

For more info, go to www.santashoebox.co.za.