How old shoes can save lives

How old shoes can save lives

2020-02-18

Throughout the world, millions of quality shoes are thrown away every year. However, those shoes can actually be reused and protect people from a parasitic flea called jiggers. An internet-based campaign initiated by a Taiwanese has been sending unwanted second-hand shoes, clothes and bags from Taiwan to rural areas in Africa. Over the past five years, they have sent over millions of pairs of shoes. Formosa News spoke to the founders of the organization to learn more.

The volunteers take each pair of shoes out of the box, making sure they are wearable. Then they sort them into different bags.

Lastly, they seal the bag and the shoes are ready to go into the shipping container.

Stephany Yang
Formosa News reporter
After these shoes are sorted and packaged, they are sent to Kenya and other parts of Africa.

All these discarded shoes, clothes and bags in the warehouse will be donated to Africa. Two containers are sent to Africa every month.

Many children in Kenya must walk barefoot between two and four hours to attend school. Many cannot afford shoes. Therefore, these used shoes from Taiwan can help protect locals, especially children, from a bug called jiggers. Millions of feet are infected with jiggers in many countries of East Africa. Yang Yu-jen, inspired by his father-in-law, a retired Canadian missionary, launched an online campaign "Old Shoes Save Lives." Since 2014, they have received at least 2 million shoes and have sent them all to African countries, such as Kenya and Uganda.

Yang Yu-jen
Step30 founder
My father-in-law first built a school there. A lot of kids they have problem with jiggers. It’s basically a parasite that will bury themselves into their feet from walking on the dirt road. They will start to lay eggs and suck their blood, and their whole legs will get infested. If severe, you might need amputation or life-threatening situations. A door opened up where we can do something for the people and the villages in Kenya. It turned into something bigger than we thought it would. Even later on, we expand to different countries is because of that concept where if there’s something we can do, let’s go do it.

Kara Remley
Step30 co-founder
I know that we won’t be able to change everybody’s life. But if we can help some people to change their life, that they can be a leader in their community. We do our part, but there are also churches and pastors in Kenya, there’s other organizations, we’re all doing little bits and pieces to help these people. It’s really cool to see, to be able to go a few years later and see the people that you met before and and how their life has changed.

If you’re interested in donating, children’s shoes, closed-toe shoes and sneakers are welcome, while high heels, winter boots or even wooden clogs are not. Besides the "Old Shoes Save Lives" initiative, Yang later launched a non-government organization called Step30 International Ministries, where volunteers help out with projects like drilling wells and building education and medical centers in Africa.

Yang Yu-jen
Step30 founder
We should do prevention. We started to do educations on hygiene, we started having nurses on the ground teaching them, and then we started building those medical educational centers. I think ultimately that’s what’s going to help them. Because poverty, the thing about poverty is everything is interconnected. You cannot solve one aspect of it thinking their life is going to be better. You kind of have to tackle all different areas.

Besides providing shoes, the containers that are used to transport shoes will be turned into a container school providing education for children in Africa.

In addition, Yang’s wife Kara Remley and her mother have also created a project to teach African women how to make reusable sanitary pads.

Kara Remley
Step30 co-founder
Really, we just saw that a lot of the girls couldn’t go to school because they didn’t have sanitary pads. We would teach them how to cut it, how to sew it. Then, of course turn it inside out and then we teach them how to hygienically use it.

Yang Yu-jen
Step30 founder
In 2020, we are looking into selecting more villages. With the project, we are talking about village transformation. Which we select a village, we want to provide them clean water, education, food and medical care. I hope to select two to three more so we can work with them in the next five or 10 years.

Yang and Remley hope to encourage more people under the age of 30 to become involved in humanitarian aid work, and help more people in the world.