A Mitchells Plain teacher said after getting a little bit of help from Springbok rugby stars, his foundation Lace up for Change has collected enough school shoes for kids at 20 schools.
In 2021, Irfaan Abrahams took part in 50 half-marathons and raised over R200 000 towards school shoes for needy children at primary schools all over the Kaap.
But the Liesbeeck Primary School teacher’s feet were still busy when he attended a function on Tuesday night to receive more donations from a Milnerton rugby club.
“I was invited to an event hosted by the UniMil Rugby Club in Milnerton where we received a donation of 118 school shoes at the event and another 150 set to arrive by the end of this week.
“The club made contact after seeing the articles posted about our drive, so I am very grateful to the Daily Voice for the exposure,” says Irfaan.
At the event, Irfaan said local rugby personalities were present such as former Springbok Adrian Jacobs, Western Province hooker Scarra Ntubeni and former Junior Bok flyhalf Isma-eel Dollie, who is currently a coach at the club.
Isma-eel said: “I have been following Irfaan on social media for some time now and when I saw what he was doing for the kids, I reached out to him to link up.
“I knew that a small impact can make a massive change and along with the encouragement of the club’s board, we have collected over 100 pairs and I hope that it can make a big difference in those kids’ lives.”
Irfaan says the shoes collected at the function alone are enough to help one school, while the rest of the collections will ensure hundreds of children will get new pairs.
“Once all the shoes are collected, we will have enough to donate to 20 schools and at the end of this month, we will determine which schools in the Western Cape will get the shoes.
“Our aim is to help those most in need and we as an organisation have identified the schools, but at this time we will not make that knowledge public.”