Making shoes for barefoot children in Mozambique

It is with mixed emotions that I am submitting the final Project Report for “Making Shoes For Barefoot Children in Mozambique.” Through your love and support we have developed a program that will potentially improve the lives of many of Mozambique’s barefoot children and bring a new skillset and economic empowerment to disadvantaged youth in Maputo. However, this project was never intended to be confined to a single nation in Africa, since there are 300 million barefoot children around the world. Mozambique was an important first step in developing a successful model. Now it’s time to replicate that model in other nations that have asked for our help. We are very grateful to Rita da Silva for her role in getting the project off the drawing board and into the villages. She has put a structure in place so that the operation can become self sufficient, allowing us to devote resources elsewhere.

At this time we are beginning operations in Uganda and in Sierra Leone. We hope to create GlobalGiving projects for both of these programs and hope you will continue your support of the Heeling Our World program. We will contact you with details when we introduce them on the GlobalGiving platform.

Once again, thanks to all of you for your compassion for the world’s barefoot children and your understanding of the responsibilities we all share as global citizens.

As the mothers in the village of Macuane continue to make shoes for their children, we are going through the necessary steps and required paperwork in order to get permission to scale up the project and expand into other villages in Gaza Provence, Mozambique. Although we are anxious to begin, somehow the process always takes longer than anticipated. Our work in Mozarte continues as Moises develops the production models for the shoes that were designed by the Industrial Design students at NC State University. They are being adapted so that they will be produced at a reasonable price, using locally sourced materials. I’ve attached images of a few of the prototypes. The beautiful, bold fabric is called “capulana” and is native to Mozambique.

Since the plight of the barefoot children is not confined to a single African nation, we are now also working in Uganda and are laying the groundwork for introducing the project to Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone we will be working with women who were survivors of the Ebola crises. Many of these women lost large numbers of their family to the disease, and they themselves have become stigmatized and are treated like outcasts. The project will help them gain economic empowerment and take a step towards reclaiming their lives.

In the U.S. we continue to bring the project into high schools and teach students about their responsibility as global citizens. Recently Board member, Chris Morgan and myself were featured on a TV program and had the opportunity to speak about the project. I have included a link to the show. To find this episode, you must go to the “Archives” tab, and click the Heeling Our World episode.

Thank you for your support,

Mitch

Links:

• TV Program about our project