LISOF ‘baring it all’ for the TOMS ‘One Day without Shoes’ awareness campaign
LISOF joined the worldwide community by going barefoot for a day on Tuesday the, 5th of April 2011. ‘One Day without Shoes’ is an annual awareness initiative launched by TOMS Shoes in 2010 in order to raise awareness for children around the world who do not have shoes. It encourages people all over the world to experience one day without shoes. Some of us may go without shoes for an hour, some for the whole day, but we all become part of a greater movement towards change; tiny steps leading to giant leaps. This campaign was designed to create a talking point and to make us aware of the ‘little’ things that we can do to affect more significant, positive changes in our world.
On Monday 4th April 2011 and Tuesday 5th 2011 LISOF staff and students collected pairs of second-hand (wearable) shoes for The Gift of the givers Foundation. The Gift of the Givers Foundation works with various people and organizations within disaster relief efforts and numerous projects, it’s the largest disaster relief organisation of African origin on the African continent. They have delivered over R450 million in aid to 31 countries around the world, including South Africa. Gift of the Givers invites the ubuntu driven South African society to participate at any level of the programme described above to make a meaningful contribution to the life of even one child. Through this LISOF initiated a shoe-drive to support the Toms ‘one day without shoes’ campaign. We hoped to inspire, captivate and educate the community by going one day without shoes so that kids don’t have to.
We are proud to announce that we collected close to 500 pairs of shoes and will be handing them over to the foundation on Monday the 11th of April.