AIDS AWARENESS

As soon as we started to attract numbers and attention to the program we knew we had to use this 'vehicle' to promote Aids Awareness though Sports. In fact it was our first ever mission statement; Promoting Aids Awareness through sports.

AIDS is a four lettered word in Africa, and it is even difficult in the rural areas for a Mother to talk about the disease to her daughter. A social taboo. Remembering how things were similar in the Western World we thought let's get the word out there, on race banners, on the bib numbers, a ribbon on the T shirts.

Once, when we held a race bringing in a large NGO (funded by the Gates Foundation) there was a hiccup; no leaflets to hand out. The organization that came to administer the voluntary counseling and Aids testing did not have any pamphlets at all; apparently no money although they appeared well funded arriving in a brand new Toyota land cruiser. We found out that the only pamphlets that were available (and could be printed could not be found), were only printed in English and Swahili.

In this large region of Western Kenya most people spoke the Kalenjin language. So we tracked down a preacher in Molo who could help with a translation and Shoe4Africa printed their own pamphlet. An old friend, Hilary Kipsang Choge, contacted us after we circulated the paper, available too as a downloadable PDF;
“I will send this link to as many of my Kalenjin friends as possible, and hopefully some of them will want to participate in the next shoe-4-africa race or event. I really have to hand it to you on this, and I wish information of this nature and in this language had reached my parents years ago, for it's too late for them now: they both have the virus, about which I found out when I was still stateside, and almost had to visit a shrink, because am very close with my mom.....But c'est la vie, as you would say. Something has to kill us in this world, and at least for them they know it’s coming, which maybe is not a very good thing?”

That we are an extremely small organization has also led to a great initiative; combining scholarships with Aids Awareness projects. In 2001 the idea came about to sponsor a schoolgirl at a school that would agree. in turn, to also hold an Aids Awareness program once a term. In return an Aids Awareness package would be given the school, and a four year scholarship would be paid. This has proven to be very effective leaving a double footprint on a positive deed.

MALARIA

Malaria is the number one cause of death in Africa. Every thirty seconds a child is dying from malaria, a disease that is both preventable and treatable. In 2009 I went to a number of hospitals in Kenya and my first question was, "What is the main cause of admittance here?" Every time I was told, "Malaria."

 

After hearing that kids were the most vulnerable I remembered about the Deaf school in Iten. My friend John Mutai had always said, "You must do a race for these people." I started to think of how I was alerted to Malaria, waking up as I would hear a mosquito coming to bite me buzzing inches away. Well what about the deaf kids. Then I was thinking of the kids who are also physically handicapped who can't quickly swat away the insect. Or the mentally handicapped who might not realize the dangers.

Visiting the three boarding schools I discovered all the dorms did not have bed nets... So the plan was do a race and at the finish line give out bednets instead of medals. We did the event in August 2009 as a kick off to doing more.

 

HEALTH

One of the big health concerns in Kenya is hookworm. the simple act of putting a shoe on a barefoot can stop this parasite from entering the body. In Kibera 2008 we gave out 12,000 pairs of shoes alone. Months earlier Sam Dobson headed a Shoedrive for us in Dubai and we dropped 7000 pairs in Tanzania.

Future plans are for a Kenyan owned/run blown-rubber shoe factory, in Kibera. We plan to work with investors who will fund a small factory employing women from Kibera. The business will become a co-op with the workers becoming the owners. After two years of small production for the children of the slums we will bring over a 'name' to visit the factory and model a shoe. The idea of Kenya helping Kenyans will be then taken to a chain store in the US where the westerner can buy the shoe and support the micro-factory... turning it into a sustainable business.

The dream is 1.2 million pairs of shoes for the 1.2 million residents of Kibera. A local university has already agreed to help the Kiberians with the business side of things, a huge US-designer with a chain of stores likes this concept, and when the hospital is finished...

Watch this space!