Thank you but the end is just the beginning ..

First of December. November has finished. Feet are no longer bare. Shoes, socks and slippers are back on! 

Thank you all SO SO SO much for all the kind words of support and donations I have received throughout the whole of November and my barefoot madness! 

There are SO many people I need to thank...

Thank you to Simon Dalton for letting us share his No Shoes November idea from 2011, joining us in 2013 and just coming up with the BEST IDEA EVER!!!

Thank you to the No Shoes November full time team; Sophie de Winter raising for Stand by Me, Sarah Lawrence raising for Tearfund, Andy Davies and Alex White raising for Edith's Home Uganda, Lucy Avery and Matthew Boswell doing solidarity days, every day!! However there are many more that joined us for a day or more, so many friends came together to support us. I know the others have a huge list of people too! We had a great time wandering the streets of Cardiff as a team, handing out leaflets and chatting to people. Met some lovely new barefooters too even made a barefoot human pyramid! Because of all of you this thing has been AMAZING! 

Thank you to the people that joined me in solidarity for KOP; Sarah Roberts, Rhian Griffiths, Charlotte Curtis, Amanda Choong, Rhiannon Cornick, Ben Eder and Natalia Fricker. Because of you guys the amazing work that KOP does to support the orphaned and vulnerable children has been shared with hundreds more people! Some of you raised for your own Justgiving pages but some of you had friends donate to my page. Either way, KOP has received extra this month.


Thank you to Natalia Fricker, KOP Student Programme Coordinator, for being a MASSIVE support for me through tough times and joining me for the last 5 days! You are truly amazing, totally committed and I hope your next adventure after you leave KOP allows you to reach your dreams that we share .. TO END POVERTY!! 

Finally ...

Thank you to all the people that have donated to any of the charities; Stand by Me, Tearfund, Edith's Home Uganda and KOP. We have almost raised £11,000 for all 4 charities! I've raised over £1,800 since the start of November for KOP and over £3,200 since I started fundraising for KOP in January 2013. Without the support of all of YOU I never could have made it through the month! 

It has been an incredible emotional roller coaster of a month! I have loved every minute of it. I didn't want it to end as it has been amazing to raise so much money for KOP and all the publicity and awareness of going barefoot is just overwhelming.

My dream of ending poverty and making the world a fairer place has taken one step forward because of No Shoes November. WE CAN DO THIS. WE ARE DOING THIS! 

Poverty is wrong, so we took our shoes off!

The links one last time ..

http://www.justgiving.com/LucyNoShoesNovember
http://www.kopafrica.org/student-programme
http://noshoesnovember.com/

Time to celebrate and thank God for giving us an amazing opportunity to live a full life and showing us the path to help the 1.4 billion living in poverty.

Thank you and God bless.

Day 28 & 29

A RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING amount of money has been raised over the past 2 days, I am SO happy!!

Firstly, THANK YOU to everyone that has donated and supported me. 

Natalia has continued her barefoot wanders across Bristol and will ask her to blog about her whole ordeal, which I'll share with you guys :) She has been a great friend and her joining the last 5 days of No Shoes November means a lot to me. Asante Sana.

Rhian finished her 3 days barefoot and managed to raise a staggering £137 from her fellow RHUL students and friends. SO PROUD of my chwaer ifanca! Cariad bob amser <3

Sarah is not only amazing because she's done a day of solidarity for KOP because it means SO much to her too, she has also recruited incredible new KOPpers that also want to join No Shoes November!!

Charlotte Curtis, a new Cardiff KOPpers, has joined the last 2 days of No Shoes November, Already raised a nice chunk of her target towards her target and already saying "I'm addicted to KOP, can't wait for the trip in the Summer!" 


KOP is infectious. KOP is incredible. KOP is a huge part of me. 

Please help me raise as much awareness as possible on day 30 tomorrow!

If you haven't donated yet then anything small would be AWESOME!!
http://www.justgiving.com/lucynoshoesnovember

SO EXCITED for Day 30!!! 
Lots of KOP love. 

No Shoes Solidarity

Day 27 ..

Rhian has completed 3 days of barefoot solidarity for No Shoes November!! So proud of you :D
She studies Maths and Music at RHUL (Royal Holloway University of London) and is involved in all the music, drama and maths scenes so plenty of people saw her barefoot! Which is AMAZING!!
She is still collecting so haven't had the final total of the cash donations from her but it's over £100 which is awesome!! :D 

Natalia is on her second day barefoot and wishes she started from Day 1!! She believes, possibly more passionately than myself, the fact that 1.4 billion people are living in extreme poverty is completely wrong and she has taken her shoes off to make people more aware of this!

Along the way, she has taken some great barefoot photos! One which I LOVE from today is of Steve, a fundraiser from the Red Cross. After she signed up to the Red Cross, he too took his shoes of in solidarity! It's now spreading further across Bristol! :D Today she discovered how AMAZING painted lines on the road and leaves are to walk on, us barefooters know exactly what she's talking about!!

She has been crucial, among others, in aiding my understanding of the charity sector, international development and the importance of helping the developing countries suffering from poverty, through the Kenyan Orphan Project. Without the experiences I've had volunteering with KOP I wouldn't be the person I am today. 

I've never really thought we had a path chosen for us in life, but only because I never knew what it was. I now feel that my destiny is to work in international development, help others in the fight against poverty and really do something positive every day of my life. I can't wait to begin on this adventure. BUT until then I am learning lots and fundraising (hopefully lots!) for KOP.

Please help me get one step closer to fulfilling my dream of ending poverty by donating anything small. If you already have or really can't (which I understand) then why don't you go barefoot for a day or half a day to feel what it's like!? IF that doesn't appeal to you then I just ask you to share No Shoes November with your friends, family, colleagues, neighbours and even people you don't like, great conversation starter ;)

I was on 96.4 fm the wave radio station early this morning and I will be on Swansea Sound tomorrow morning, for all you early South West Wales radio listeners, tune in!

Remember .. www.justgiving.com/LucyNoShoesNovember

                     www.noshoesnovember.com

Thank YOU! It's YOU that can make a difference, I'm already doing what I can do. NOW it's YOUR turn!

Day 26 is barefoot crazy!!

No Shoes Tuesday at KOP HQ!!

Today has been incredible for millions of reasons .. 


It started off with lots of donations reaching past the £900 mark early this morning.

While in the office, talking about No Shoes November, both the Student Programme Coordinator Natalia Fricker and Volunteer Ben Eder took off their shoes too! :D We had lots of fun outside taking photos and made them realise how cold it really is! Ben then had to cycle to Uni barefoot and Natalia had to walk 40 mins uphill barefoot! So happy and proud of you both for joining me today. 

I also read a lovely message from Elizabeth at Kochogo Feeding Centre, a project that is 100% funded by KOP students. She thanks everyone for the donations and says lives were changed! This is why I'm doing No Shoes November, to change lives! They are living in poverty but because of KOP they have 3 nutritional meals a day and have access to healthcare and a good education. It isn't much to ask. £25 a month does this. Think you can spare that much? 



I reached my target of £1,000 today :D wahooo!!!

 A few photos from Natalia's long walk home from the KOP office ... 

I'll leave you with my favourite of the day .. Some beautiful children that KOP support showing their appreciation for No Shoes November! These smiling faces are some of the incredible children KOP support. They smile every day yet they have very little but food in their bellies because of KOP.

Remember to make a difference, go to www.justgiving.com/LucyNoShoesNovember.

Thank you all so, so much!! 

Day 25, out comes the foot spa ..

Today, I was tired and my feet were tired, recovering from the excitement of the weekend!

I had lots of publicity today at the Swansea Community Orchestra Christmas Concert, lots of people praising me for baring my feet in the freezing cold church and some donations too .. :)

The lovely Rhian Griffiths did her 2nd day of No Shoes November day, SO PROUD!! I hear she has already raised £60 for KOP, that I am SUPER excited about. Love you so much for taking your shoes off for sharing with the world that you too think poverty is wrong, and YOU have done something about it!!

Feet are in a bit of a mess and mam decided to get out the foot spa for me, for this I love you even more <3

I am around the £900 mark, I would love to reach and smash the £1,000 target I have set by the end of November!! Please share, tweet, post, pray and donate!! http://www.justgiving.com/LucyNoShoesNovember

Remember, there are 1.4 BILLION PEOPLE IN THE WORLD LIVING IN EXTREME POVERTY. They are the reason we are barefoot for 30 DAYS!! We want to put an end to poverty, TOGETHER WE CAN DO THIS!! 

Only 5 days left!! :D

Thank you all SO SO MUCH for all the donations and encouraging support.

Lots of KOP love.

Weekend no. 4 - No Shoes Crew and KOP Santa Dash

This weekend has been incredible!!! :D 


Saturday, 

I had a lovely time catching up with friends in Cardiff and making new ones with the No Shoes November crew at Woody Baptist Film night. Featured here other than myself is; Alex White and Andy Davies raising for Edith's Home Uganda and Lucy Avery and Matthew Boswell raising awareness for all the charities.






Sunday, 

I joined up with the KOP Cardiff 2014 team and did the 5k Santa Dash .. BAREFOOT!! It was hard running as I haven't been running since before my trip to Kenya in August! But after 1k I started to get new cuts and was lucky enough to pick out the glass from my feet before it caused too much damage ..
















We ran around Cathays, Cardiff in our Christmas 
fancy dress. We received lots of attention and took lots of photos on the way ...
A BIG shout out to the new KOPpers, Caitlin Armstrong, Lucy Gibb and Charlotte Curtis who joined myself and Sarah Roberts (KOP Cardiff President) in running and starting their fundraising.

So a HUGE well done to them. They looked incredible in their Santa Outfits too and already they have donations on their Justgiving page! Anyone reading this at Cardiff University thinking I missed out! Then look us up on https://www.facebook.com/CardiffKOP or send an email to kopafrica.cardiff@gmail.com. If you would like more information on the KOP Student Programme or whether there is a society at your uni or a uni near you then go to http://www.kopafrica.org/student-programme



Sunday -Tuesday is exciting for me as a lovely friend from Orchestra back home is doing 3 days of solidarity for No Shoes November!! Rhian Griffiths is doing AMAZINGLY! She deserves all the support she can get! She is posting my justgiving page http://www.justgiving.com/lucynoshoesnovember  and I've already received donations from her friends, I am SO grateful that she's raising awareness of extreme poverty in Royal Holloway University! I hope that her friends, classmates and lectureres are understanding and supportive. Lots of KOP love for you Rhian. Diolch yn fawr! Cariad mawr! 

Thank you for all the donations over the weekend, they really mean the world to me!!
Only 6 more days to go!! 

Cold day 22 ..

Anyone else tried walking on frosted ground and grass?
No I didn't think so.. It is freezing!! Feet have been cold all day, they ache and just look disgusting!!
First day walking round with a plaster on the bottom of my foot, stupid cuts .. :/

So I wore my hoody to promote it lots and as the whole of this evening the temperatures were already 0, the reaction was great!

My No Shoes November article was posted on the KOP website today, wahoo! Most of you will have read this as my first post, but to read it on the KOP website go to http://www.kopafrica.org/news/78/no-shoes-november.

Any UK University Students reading this wondering about the KOP Student Programme then go to  http://www.kopafrica.org/student-programme, watch the video and you'll see how inspirational KOP is and why I can't stop talking about it. 

The trip to Kenya with KOP was my second visit to Kenya yet the trip to Kisumu with KOP was life changing and set me on a new path .. KOP taught me the importance of every child receiving nutritional meals, having healthcare facilities available to them and having access to a good education. With these three key aims KOP focusses on, a child is destined to have a good future. With a good education they can get themselves out of poverty by going to University and getting a good job. But they can only get a good education if they can attend school every day. But they cannot attend school every day if they are ill. 

If we make sure EVERY CHILD has nutritious meals every day to stay healthy enough to attend school to get their education then we have succeeded in helping them get them out of poverty. Sometimes, it is that simple. EVERY CHILD I have met in Eastern Africa LOVES school and learning. EVERY CHILD always smiled even though they were suffering. EVERY CHILD in the world deserves a chance.

Please help me and the rest of the No Shoes November team, who can be found at http://noshoesnovember.com/, in our fight against poverty. TELL EVERYONE about No Shoes November. Take your shoes off. Pray. Donate. Do whatever you can to support us. 
I love receiving donations from people that don't even know me, do you know why? It means the message has spread and other people too believe in what we dream. A world without poverty. It will happen. But only with lots of help from YOU!!

http://www.justgiving.com/lucynoshoesnovember

THANK YOU. Lots of KOP love.

8 days to go ... wahoo!! :D