Shoes

Shoes

The collection for the 2008/9 Shoe Aid for Africa campaign took place last
October and finished poignantly on Child Poverty Day - Friday 17th October.
Children and families across the UK rallied together to donate their
unwanted shoes in a bid to change another child's life, in Africa. Shoe care
experts Kiwi launched the campaign to give UK families a chance to change
lives in Africa. Children's shoes from the UK, which would otherwise have
been thrown away, will be cherished by children who have never known the
luxury of owning a pair. This first pair of shoes gives these children
enormous self-esteem and pride.

A selection of schools, Sure Start centres as well as Scout groups across
the country kindly donated over 20,000 pair of shoes to the cause last year.
Kiwi representatives spent time in UK schools talking to children about the
shoes they donated and how they felt about helping a child in Africa. The
children wrote letters to accompany the shoes wishing the children in Africa
happiness and describing life in England.
 
Andy from Cippenham Primary School, Slough
Hello my name is Andy and I am 9 years old. The shoes I have donated are the
ones I dearly loved and I played football with them and all kinds of sports
with them. I hope you have a wonderful time with them. I want to be a
footballer when I grow up and if that doesn't go well I can always get a job
at the theatre selling tickets and popcorn. I am happy to give you these
shoes because I don't know what I would do without my shoes. I don't know
what you like but I certainly love animals and if you can, can you please
give me a new species of animal, especially cats, I adore them.
>From Andy
I hope you really like my shoes and rock on!

Just over a month after the collection, sorting began at the Planet Aid UK
warehouse in Corby, Northamptonshire. Planet Aid UK is the British member of
Humana People to People. On 20th November 2008 Kiwi representatives wrapped
up warm and got stuck in helping to sort thousands of pairs of shoes. 
Brigit Soe, Project Leader at Humana UK is very happy to partner with Kiwi
in this fantastic project:
'We are very pleased to be working with Kiwi on the Shoe Aid for Africa
campaign. Their funding is much appreciated and enables us to provide the
shoes at no cost to the recipient. I think the campaign is a great way of
raising awareness within our younger generation of the issues facing other
cultures. I am very grateful to the team and I feel it is important they get
to see the campaign in action.'

The country identified as being most in need by the African branch of
Humana, ADPP, was Mozambique. The shoes started their three-month journey to
Mozambique just before Christmas and were shipped via Durban in South Africa
to Beira, the primary port of Mozambique. At present when second hand
clothes and shoes are distributed in Africa it is common for the recipient
to be charged a small sum to cover the transport and handling costs. In the
case of the 'Shoe Aid for Africa' campaign, all costs are totally funded by
Kiwi so that both adult and children's shoes can be given out for free.

Whilst in Mozambique, Kiwi representatives spent a week in April travelling
around ADPP programmes including TCE (Total Control of the Epidemic)
HIV/AIDS camps, townships and street children's schools and orphanages in
the Sofala and Manica provinces of Mozambique. The Kiwi team were greeted
with wonderful African singing and dancing at the symbolic distributions.
They spent time meeting children and learning about their daily lives. They
also took with them footballs and plenty of classroom equipment including
crayons, pencils and notepads to aid the children in their classes. With
their new equipment the children wrote letters of thanks back to the
children in the UK. This enabled the children to engage and understand each
other's diverse cultures and made the donations far more personal for the
recipients of the shoes.
 
ADPP street school in Chimoio, Mozambique
My name is Adam Fernando. I'm from Mozambique and I have short hair and
brown eyes. I would like to say to you thank you for offering us the shoes.
I used to walk bare feet but due to your help, now I'm happy with the shoes.
In Mozambique the climate is temperate, it's sometimes cold and sometimes
rainy.

At one particular school in Chimoio called "Formigas de Futuro", meaning
"ants of the future", the Kiwi team spent an afternoon listening to a
cultural programme of song and dance followed by an exhausting football
game! The children loved playing in the long grass and sweltering heat, most
of them barefoot, and they certainly gave the Kiwi team a good game! 

Brand Manager for Kiwi enjoyed visiting Mozambique to help distribute shoes:

'It was an amazing experience to see the joy and excitement in the
children's faces when you fitted them with a pair of shoes. They had such
genuine happiness for receiving something that in the UK we take for
granted.'

The experience was a real eye-opener and it soon became evident how
important education was in changing attitudes and driving development in
Mozambique, which remains one of the world's poorest countries. 
Director for Kiwi, Margaret Jobling, is thrilled with the response to the
Shoe Aid for Africa campaign and overwhelmed by the number of shoes donated.
She hopes that it's success can be built upon with this year's campaign:
'The Shoe Aid for Africa campaign has allowed us at Kiwi to engage with
children around the country and educate them on the difficulties children
face in less privileged parts of the world. It was a fantastic for members
of the team to visit Mozambique and take part in the distribution of the
shoes first hand. They were privileged to meet the Humana representatives
working there and learn about the fantastic work they are doing across
numerous projects. Getting actively involved at every stage of the campaign
enabled us to see how Kiwi's support can make a difference and drives us to
build on this success for Shoe Aid for Africa 2009'.

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