Most people, when they think about poor African or Asian countries, they think of hunger as the biggest problem. But extreme poverty is not just about having nothing to eat. It is also about having no access to basic products needed for surviving. A simple pair of shoes is one of them.
Inventor Kenton Lee spent time working in Kenya. Quickly, he got quite upset observing that most children in the area where he worked, either didn’t have shoes or the shoes they were wearing were too small for their feet. This condition can be very risky for children, as a great number of diseases can be transmitted from the dirty floor, through the feet to the child’s organism. He saw children having cut the front part of the shoes, in order for their feet to fit inside –this, however creative, was only a slightly bit of a better protection than walking with no shoes.
For that reason, Lee decided to come up with a solution, and so he did. He invented a specific pair of shoes that can actually grow with the foot of the child: the shoe is adjustable by 5 sizes, which means that a single pair can serve a child for more than 5 years. He created a crowdfuding campaing, in 2011, and succeeded in finding adequate funding to create 2,000 shoes to distribute in Kenya. His team at the organization named “Because International” now started a new campaign, from April 2015, in order to create more shoes for more children in need. Here: https://www.crowdrise.com/becauseinternational is the site of the campaign, for everyone willing to help. Check out the video that shows the beautiful journey of the man that changed the life of so many children.
by Jonah Winter, Truth Inside of You.
