UU student initiative transforms refugee kids’ dreams into socks

“It’s a given for us to dream about being a fireman, a doctor or an astronaut. But if you don’t live in a secure country or don't have a stable residence, how are you going to dream about where you want to be in 20 years?”  

The name Toekies combines the Dutch words toekomst (future) and sokkies (socks). The drawings made in the workshops are turned into colourful socks, whose proceeds fund opportunities that help the children explore their aspirations. The chairperson of Toekies, Hanna Shutter, who just graduated with a master's in Sustainable Business and Innovation at UU, spoke with DUB about their work.  

Toekies works with refugee centres and language schools to organise drawing afternoons for refugee children. In these events, kids are encouraged to put their dreams on paper. Individuals and companies then purchase the socks made based on the drawings. “The profit from the socks funds is used to organise interactive activities that connect to the children's dreams, such as painting workshops, sports, and other activities,” explains Schutter.  

How it began 
Toekies is a team of five, which consists of Schutter, Sonica, Ito, Vernooij and Eberhart. They began operations as an initiative of Enactus, an association that supports social enterprises addressing social, economic, and environmental problems. They were the first Dutch team to be in the top 16 of the Enactus World Cup 2025, a conference where “each team presents the entrepreneurial projects that are making an impact on the Global Goals in their communities right now, and that have the momentum to launch new social enterprises, create new careers and scale impact”.  

Shutter recalls: “When I joined Enactus, the idea of Toekies was there already, but there was a lack of a team to carry the idea out. So, over the years, my team and I worked on Toekies as somewhat of a side project to our studies”. 

They could not let their work dissipate after graduation, however. “After all of us graduating, we realised that we had too much passion to give it up: we bring so much to the kids we work with, and have learned so much from it ourselves. So, we decided to launch it as a non-profit organisation (stichting) and continue our work”.  

Raising footballers, fashion designers and inventors 
The team has worked with over 307 kids within workshops and activities, hosting 16 workshops and selling 340 pairs of socks in the past year. Schutter recalls a particular child’s story that stuck with her: “His dream was to have a house with his mom and dad and his sisters in it that would be full of love. The simplicity of the dream made me realise we take so many things for granted”.  

The same little boy unexpectedly came across her path again, some weeks later, at a language school. After his family had found permanent housing, made friends in his new school, and been allowed to stay in the Netherlands, his dream had changed. He wanted to be a professional football player, like many other boys his age. “It’s so heartwarming, as you think that those dreams are so simple that they are heartbreaking, but after achieving them, they finally get to dream as any other little boy would.”  

The buyers of these socks not only support many refugee kids, but also the dreams the Toekies team had as children. Schutter achieved her dream of pursuing a career in fashion, Matthijs helped invent and actualise the organisation in line with his dreams of being an inventor, and the entire team works on their goals of helping refugee kids across the Netherlands. For this upcoming year, Toekies is scaling and planning 32 drawing sessions at multiple locations.