Note From The Founder
SCHOOLLASHUSHU >> NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER
THE FOUNDER
SIR Bongani Luvalo, CEO & Founder
Dear Friend, Partner, and Fellow South African,
I was raised by a hardworking mother who did everything in her power to ensure we were cared for. She was a working-class woman of strength and determination, and because of her sacrifices, I never went without. But I did not have to look far to see a different reality.
I was raised by a hardworking mother who did everything in her power to ensure we were cared for. She was a working-class woman of strength and determination, and because of her sacrifices, I never went without. But I did not have to look far to see a different reality.
The “Lashushu” of my childhood was not just a shoe it was dignity. It was the difference between holding your head high and shrinking into yourself. And I knew, even then, that this gap between those who had and those who did not was not a reflection of effort or love, but of circumstance.
When I founded School Lashushu, I did not set out to build a shoe company. I set out to close that gap one child, one classroom, one community at a time.
Join us. Walk with us. Let us take this journey together, one dignified step at a time.
NO CHILD SHOULD WALK TO SCHOOL IN PAIN
To the individual reading this:
You may not have millions to give, but you have something equally powerful, the choice to care. When you buy a pair of School Lashushu shoes for your child, your niece, your neighbor, you are not just purchasing leather and rubber. You are voting for a South Africa where every child starts their day on equal footing. You are keeping a township legacy alive. You are telling a young learner: “You matter. Your journey matters. Your dreams matter.”
To our corporate partners:
I appeal to you not from a place of charity, but from lived understanding. More than 3 million South African children still walk barefoot or in shoes held together by hope and prayer. This is not a distant statistic, this is a child in a community like the one I grew up in, who will struggle to concentrate in class because their feet are cold and sore. This is a child who will skip school on rainy days because they have nothing to wear. This is a child whose potential is being eroded one painful step at a time.
Corporate South Africa, you have the power to change this. Through your CSI budgets, your procurement policies, your employee giving programs, you can put quality footwear on thousands of young feet. You can partner with us not as a handout, but as a shared investment in the future workforce, the future leaders, the future of this nation.
I am not asking you to save the world. I am asking you to help us ensure that no child in South Africa starts their school day in pain. That no child has to choose between education and footwear. That every child can walk into their classroom and their future with pride.
My mother taught me that dignity is not something you earn; it is something every child deserves. School Lashushu is my way of extending that lesson to every community I once watched struggle.
School Lashushu is more than a shoe. It is a promise. A promise that heritage and quality can coexist with compassion. That business can be a force for good. That a child from the deepest rural village and a child from the suburbs can both wear a shoe that says: “I am seen. I am valued. I am South African.”
More than 3 million South African children walk barefoot or in torn shoes
That they use for school, weekend activities, church attendance, and even sports.
School Lashushu: Every Step Matters.
Contact Us
293 Dekema Road, Cnr Dekema and Commercial Road, Wadeville, Germiston