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Walk barefoot for a cause
TOMS shoes wants you to kick off your shoes tomorrow to raise awareness about children who don't have shoes.
Wed, Apr 15 2009 at 7:47 PM
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Like to walk barefoot in the sand? Tomorrow you’ll have real reason to — assuming you live somewhere relatively close to a beach. TOMS shoes, the eco-ethical shoe company that donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes bought, wants you to kick off your shoes for One Day Without Shoes to raise awareness about the fact that many children don’t have shoes necessary to get to school. (via Ethical Style)
 
All you have to do is go around shoe-free tomorrow, April 16 — or at least portions of the day. Find out what shoe-free events are happening in your neighborhood on TOMS’ website, then sign up to be part of the day on Facebook .
 
 
 

Image: Courtesy TOMS

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Comments: 5
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anonymous
Guest Sep 22 2009 at 2:02 PM
The only place where the kids really need shoes are the ones that live in places where they walk on volcanic ash - this causes podoconiosis. Otherwise, they need to keep their feet strong by always going barefoot, unless they can be given shoes constantly as they grow out of them. If not, the skin on their soles will lose the toughness, the muscles and tendons will weaken, and they will be more susceptible to injury. Sure, some of the shoes, if they grow out of them before they wear them out, can
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be passed onto younger members of the village, but can all this be dome consistently? What they really need is infrastructure, sanitation, access to healtcare and clean water. And anyone who was around in the US in the late 1960s and early 1970s may remember what a widespread fad going barefoot was, especially for young women. They went barefoot everywhere during the warm months, gradually getting used to it in the spring, and by summer could walk on the hottest pavement, sharpest rocks, and even all over places like New York City without any problems. Shopping, running daily errands, and all normal daily activities were often done barefoot then by many young people back then, just for the fun of it. Today's generation does not even appear to know this even happened, and how relatively common it was. And during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, kids went barefoot everywhere for the fun of it, especially in the south, whether they were too poor to have decent shoes or not. They did it voluntarily, and those few who did not would be teased as being wimps and not being tough by their peers, the opposite of today's shallow valued peer pressure, making them buy expensive status symbol shoes and sneakers.
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anonymous
Sam Apr 20 2009 at 1:05 PM

Instead of buying more shoes that you don't really need, why not just give the price of a pair to a charity that provides kids with clean water, food, and medicine?

Aren't these higher priorities?

Do they need shoes more than these things?

Do YOU need shoes more than they need these things?

We could change the world overnight if we re-thought our priorities.

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anonymous
Tony S. Apr 19 2009 at 11:15 AM
Helping the third world by sending shoes there looks like a rather short-term, short-sighted solution: In a few years they will be worn out and be nothing but a useless rubbish piles. A much better way of helping would be investment in infrastructure, such as water supply, improvement of the medical system (including education of local doctors), education in general. They have to walk a long way to get water? Don't send them shoes, build a water pipe to their village instead. They can't go to school
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barefoot? Don't send them shoes, but start schools with low barriers to education (so-called barefoot schools have been a success in many places). Whenever you help, think of the long term effects of your help. What will be left of it in ten years? A beneficial improvement of local infrastructure or a pile of useless rubbish? The good side of the "day without shoes" - some people may actually discover that going barefoot feels good, which will benefit their own feet, their health and well-being ...
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anonymous
Thinking it through Apr 15 2009 at 11:51 PM
While I applaud the idea of getting shoes to at-risk populations living in areas where volcanic soils are prevalent, I have to wonder about the other items Tom's chose to focus on. For example, children who have to walks miles to get food and water who *want* or truly need shoes to cope with the terrain should absolutely have them, but those who prefer to remain barefoot may actually be keeping their feet safer than the kids in new shoes. Studies have shown that barefoot walking on natural terrain
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has a host of benefits, so unless the ground is scorching hot or cluttered with dangerous items, walking barefoot is generally healthier than wearing shoes. Irrespective of what position one takes on the advisability of walking barefoot, the simple fact is that some of these children have been walking barefoot their entire lives. Not only might their new shoes be poorly fitting and cause blisters, which could become infected and lead to bigger problems, wearing shoes will also soften the protective skin on the soles of the feet. This softening would not necessarily be problematic if the children were assured well-fitting shoes at every turn as they grew, but in reality, some of these kids will have shoes for a few months (at best), see them destroyed by the elements and find themselves barefoot again. Their naturally developed sole protection is gone or weakened and, ironically, their feet are more susceptible to foot injuries for having wore shoes when they had them. As for the blanket statement that children often can't go to school barefoot, maybe the rules barring barefoot children should be changed to be more inclusive. After all, how many stories have we heard of American kids going barefoot to school during the Depression? They turned out OK. The bottom line is that shoes are tools, to be worn in situations where they are needed and can genuinely protect, such as environments with volcanic soil or other clear and present dangers. Otherwise, they are pretty much optional except for the social attitudes some cultures have toward the idea of going barefoot.
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anonymous
Guest Apr 19 2009 at 6:52 AM
The problem for most children is not walking barefoot. The real problem is social and political unrest. If we could end these issues the world would be a far better place for everyone. Farmers could get back to farming instead of living in camps. Families could live in peace. Even in the US it would be far better if most children went barefoot most of the time. Childrens feet need to grow strong and health. Most of the problems we adults have later in life with our feet can be tracted back to
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the shoes we wore as kids. Instead we spend millions of dollars trying to "fix" our feet. Going bareftoot is free. If you really want to help the children of the world push your leaders to stop the wars and the killing of inocent people. If you really want to help children you would be far better off giving money to people like Dean Kamen who invented and manufactures a very good water purification system. This system needs to be installed in every village in the world.
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