#becauseinternational

Wear-a-pair Day 5/6 My feet and my Bree’s feet are here to talk more about wear a pair. I’ve been wearing the shoes for a full week now and had one inquiry about them, but to be fair I work alone in a office, so I would only get asked about them while out running errands and stuff. I’m still trying to push myself to approach people and talk about the shoes, but as an introvert I find that insanely difficult and more than a little scary.

But I am trying and that’s a lot I think.  

What concerns me more is that I regularly search the tags for this, and rarely do I find ANYTHING.  So please guys, share these posts, Do some research on this and post about it yourself.  Try and spread the word in any way you can.

And if you have the means Please, PLEase, PLEASE Donate to this awesome cause.

https://fundraise.theshoethatgrows.org/wearandcare

Today’s wear-a-pair update is kind of exciting.  Today I had a stranger ask me about my shoes.  I was at the post office getting stamps and I stopped to offer some box advice to another lady.  She thanked me for my help and I gave her a couple other bits of packing advice.  Years of packing X-Mas boxes to mail to Utah as given me some pretty serious skills in the packing department. Towards the end of our discussion she asked about my shoes, because they seem to have an awkward fit.  They do, because the extendable bit on the front tends to pull to one side, giving the shoes a bit of an off-kilter look.  I told her some quick facts about the shoes and gave her a card with my tumblr address and the website for Because International.  

Now, I am and introvert, and based on the little bit of psychology I’ve picked up from the many books I’ve read I’ also pretty sure that I’ve got at least minor social anxiety.  I can push my self out of my comfort zones for short periods, but long conversations with strangers makes me very uncomfortable.  Having the desire to bring attention the the awesome work being done by Because International and TheShoeThatGrows helped me break out of my shell a little bit today.

My concern is that moving forward through the month I won’t be able to tell as many people about it, because of my anxiety when it comes to approaching strangers.  I know most are not comfortable with just randomly approaching people and talking to them, but I truly have difficulty unless I’m forcing myself to do it for work.

I hope that I’m ale to do this great cause justice, but just in case I’m not please share and repost to bring attention to this great cause. 

I realize it is now day 4, but I fell asleep while researching what to post here. 

What I wanted to do was give you an idea what you are preventing by getting these shoes on the feet of children in developing countries.  I'm not posting pictures, because they're gross, and I don't want to keep you from sharing this information and spreading the word.

Now you might think that the only issue with these kids not having shoes is that they can injure their foot. While that is true, and the injury would most likely not heal well because they still wouldn't have shoes and so now you have a kid running around with an open wound on their foot probably only covered with a cloth bandage at best. Following that is infection, that would quickly become severe because these children do not have easy access to medical care and antibiotics.

But the other side of this that is much less obvious are the infections and parasites that enter the body through bare feet.  These parasites are everywhere in contaminated soil and water, and there is no way of preventing them EXCEPT getting shoes on these kids.  

Another condition that is preventable ONLY through wearing shoes is Podoconiosis, which is a type of elephantiasis.   This disease begins when pieces of silica enter the bottom of the foot and eventually causes massive swelling to the feet and lower legs.  This is not a parasite, or a virus, but just a part of the soil itself, and something as simple as a pair of shoes that will last longer than a few months is the only preventative measure. 

Another affect of these kids not having shoes is that for many that means that they can not attend school.  As with many places in the world it is NO SHOES=NO SERVICE.  Now if a kids has the opportunity, because they actually have a school they can attend with in range of their home, and the ability, because they do not have to spend their day working with their parents or caretakers to maintain their home, collect food or water, or do the myriad other tasks needed to keep their family alive, but they can’t go because they don’t have shoes to wear.  That is INSANE to me.  I am a person who found solace in education and it breaks my heart that only a pair of shoes stands in the way of these kids getting a basic education.  We’re not talking higher learning, or even a high school level education.  It’s preventing these kids from even getting and Elementary level education. It’s preventing them from learning to read and write, which is a basic ability they we take completely for granted.  And is an ability that could open SO many doors for them.