“Poverty is wrong, so
we took our shoes off”
‘No Shoes November’ is
all about raising awareness of extreme poverty in developing countries. I am
not alone in this brilliant but crazy initiative. I am part of a No Shoes
November Team based in Cardiff, UK.
The idea was sparked
by students and graduates who have travelled to developing countries and met
people living in extreme poverty who want to do something to help them. To us, No Shoes November is a personal
challenge with a lot of heart behind it. To give you some facts and figures,
there are 1.4 BILLION people living in extreme poverty around the world. By
extreme poverty, these people are living on less than $1 (or 65p) a day.
We are just 7 young
people (along with many friends going barefoot on odd days) that want to change
this. We will be BAREFOOT for the whole of November, that’s 30 days walking
around with no shoes on! We know that individually we are not going to be able
to change the HUGE number of people living in poverty but with the help and
support of you (yes YOU) we believe our dream of a world without poverty can
become a reality. We are raising money for 4 different charities; Tearfund,
Stand by me, Edith’s Home and KOP. KOP
(Kenyan Orphan Project) is the incredible charity I am fundraising for.
KOP is an
international development charity based in Bristol that supports orphaned and
vulnerable children in Western Kenya. KOP’s vision is a world where all
children thrive through health and education. KOP’s mission is to work in
partnership with local organisations to deliver school based health and
nutritional interventions and to inspire groups of university students to
become advocates for change. KOP has certainly achieved the latter! Around 150
students each year from 16 UK universities spend their academic year
fundraising for KOP and spend 2 weeks of their summer visiting some of the
projects their fundraising supports.
KOP changed my life
forever. Witnessing the extreme poverty in the rural parts of Western Kenya
that the children and communities live in was heartbreaking. There were
children supported by the KOP student programme-funded feeding centre that
wouldn’t be alive today without the help from KOP. This frequently brought me
to tears, seeing their smiling faces every day yet deep down knowing how many
illnesses they have and that their life expectancies were drastically reduced
because of poor health, nutrition and sanitation, before KOP thankfully stepped
in.
After two weeks of
playing with and teaching children, preparing and serving food, talking to the
members of the community and learning about their way of life made me realise
that I couldn’t go back to the UK and carry on as before. Something more has to
be done.
Since signing up for
KOP’s Student Programme in November 2012 I have raised around £1,500 for KOP. I
have participated in lots of different fundraisers including a 24 hour famine
with fellow KOPper Sarah Roberts to raise awareness of the severity of hunger
and starvation amongst the developing world and earlier this year I spent 5
days living off a £1 a day, spending a total of £4.76. I proved that it is
possible to have 3 meals a day, although my portions were smaller which left me
going to sleep hungry and constantly feeling tired. This is how 1.4 billion
people feel in the world, every day. This
must change!!
I have been barefoot
for over 2 weeks now, living every day the same just without shoes or socks.
The ground is cold and wet, gravel hurts, frost literally freezes your feet and
I am one of the lucky ones that have managed to avoid glass! But all of this
doesn’t matter because we are doing this to raise awareness and raise lots of
money.
There are loads of
ways you can get involved! You can start by visiting our
website where you’ll find more information about No
Shoes November, profiles about the individuals going barefoot and where to
donate. Support me on
facebook and join the team.
You can join us for a day (or more) by
taking your shoes off in solidarity and help us increase the awareness of No
Shoes November. You
can
donate anything at all and I’ll be grateful as every penny really does make a
difference.
PLEASE tell EVERYONE
you know about No Shoes November, let’s spread the awareness of extreme poverty
and put an end to it.
A RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING amount of money has been raised over the past 2 days, I am SO happy!!
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