A video shared by a staff member of the Children’s Resource Centre (CRC) has set off an unexpected rush of orders for the organisation’s hotbag.
Josephine De Klerk, a trainer and facilitator at the Children’s Resource Centre, which runs programmes to upskill and educate youth all over the country, said the centre’s staff are battling to meet the demand for the sudden influx of orders.
“We have people in the organisation that would sell the hotbags for an extra R50, and they get that R50 to buy bread or whatever, because in terms of our salary status at the moment, it is not a good situation,” says De Klerk.
The uptick in sales has helped to boost the organisation, which has been struggling with finances over the last few years.
Funds running low
De Klerk says the 40-year-old organisation had to sell the beautiful building which had been donated to them because funds were so low. The building in Rondebosch is now home to The Museum of Childhood.
Since then the national organisation, which has about 20 projects in rural areas and informal settlements all over the country, has been using co-ops and sales from its sewing projects to keep it afloat. Staff formed a cooperative, with each member contributing R50 to a shared fund. Profits are not taken as individual salaries but are pooled to buy materials or used to cover small shared costs such as data and other essentials.
“We never had to worry or stress about it. I don’t even think we thought about fundraising during that time — proposals and stuff,” the Kensington resident said of the years before the building had to be sold.
Their projects are in Soweto, Durban, Beaufort West and the Western Cape, but the organisation moved its national office to Alliance Française in Portland, Mitchells Plain, while its senior staff members work from home.
The CRC uses a child-to-child approach in which children organise themselves into structured groups with elected executive committees. Within each group, boys and girls are chosen as programme coordinators for themes that include health, the environment and sewing. Trained on a six-step model, the children learn to spot problems in their communities and find their own solutions — turning them into active participants in community life.
How the hotbag works
The hotbag — a simple, insulated cooking bag that lets food carry on cooking after it has been removed from the stove or fire — is made by hand by the organisation’s members. The insulation retains the heat and allows the food to finish cooking without using any more electricity or gas. A demonstration carried out by the CRC found a 26% saving in electricity compared with leaving the pot on the stove.
The surge in demand has become a boon for the nonprofit, which has seen hotbag sales boosting the funding for its projects.
De Klerk says the goal is simple: “Every child must have a hotbag, and every household.”
The organisation trains children to make the bags themselves as part of its sewing programme, and community demonstrations have helped spread the word about their practical and financial benefits.
Going viral changes everything
The video, posted on TikTok, caught the organisation completely off guard. Orders began arriving — some for 10 bags at a time, others for 15 — and what had been a quiet cooperative activity has become a significant income stream. The CRC is now looking at ways to scale up production, including the possibility of involving trained community members to meet demand.
Four school leavers have already been trained in sewing through the programme, and the organisation hopes to find funding to bring them on in a more formal capacity. For now, each hotbag sold also allows resellers to earn a small additional amount of around R50, spreading the benefit further into the community.
A movement that reaches across the country
Each of the CRC”s groups across South Africa, host about 30 children and are run by children themselves, with elected coordinators — one boy and one girl — overseeing each programme theme.
Alongside the hotbag, the CRC runs a Girl Child Feminine Hygiene Management programme that produces reusable, washable sanitary towels. The product has been approved for government procurement and has been included in sanitary packs distributed to under-resourced communities. The organisation is now preparing to launch this as a stand-alone Girl Child movement.
Staying the course
Despite the challenges of the past few years, the CRC remains committed to its founding belief that children, when given the tools and the space to organise, can drive real change in their communities. The unexpected boost from social media has offered a reminder that small, community-made products can find a wide audience — and that a bag of warm air might just help keep a 40-year-old dream alive.
For more information visit the Childrens Movement website
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