The Good Morning Breakfast
In My Shoes: Every child deserves a pair of shoes─── 06:14 Wed, 03 Aug 2022
The Good Morning Breakfast team spoke with Roland Rudd from In My Shoes, a project where they collect sport shoes and boots from children in Ireland which gets sent to South Africa for children in need.
In My Shoes is a project that two regular people decided to launch in November 2018. The largest township in Cape Town, South Africa, known as Khayelitsha, was visited by Irishman Ciarán McHugh and Kevin Grant from Bloemfontein, who lives in London.
Ciarán and Kevin were astounded at the size of the township settlements as they were by the level of destitution. They both shared the same ideas. Both of them could picture boxes in their attic back home in the UK, full of shoes that their children had outgrown but were still in fine shape, and they could both see that the majority of the youngsters playing there had no shoes on.
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An idea began to form during the flight back from the trip to Cape Town. Could they gather 500 pairs of used athletic shoes at home, and could they send these donated shoes to deserving children in Khayelitsha and South Africa?
Many kids have to travel long distances to get to school, which is a hurdle for them. These kids get up early and run the danger of being physically spent or coming late. Students in South Africa walk to school in a percentage of 67%. In addition to being a necessity for the school uniform, shoes give students a sense of security and self-worth. In areas with little resources, shoes are frequently the hardest item to obtain. A pair of shoes can frequently make the difference between a bright and gloomy future.
Listen to the full interview here: