SUN CITY – It is tough to imagine those old pairs of shoes that get tossed aside after several years could mean anything to anyone, but half a world away, they can have a huge impact.
Mary’s Gals member Barbara Tomany of N.13 secures a pair of slippers together with rubber bands before loading them into boxes headed for Westlake Community Church then Tanzania. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
Throughout the month of May, a group led by Marge and Rich Hamberg, N. 28, will collect shoes to send to Tanzania. The shoes not only go to Tanzanians, but sponsor the education of orphans in the country whose parents have died from AIDS.
It takes 420 pairs of shoes to sponsor the education of an orphan in Tanzania, and the 1,276 pairs given last year were enough for three teenage boys to attend a boarding school.
“They get their books, they get their uniforms, they get room and board, and any health issues they have will be provided [for] there,” Hamberg explained.
This year’s effort will go to the same three boys to help continue their education at the boarding school. The group collected 112 pairs of shoes the first weekend in May.
Hamberg is a part of a women’s small group in Westlake Community Church. Last year, the group looked to join a charitable effort and found one in Stuff for the Poor, an organization based in Villa Park.
Stuff for the Poor takes donations of shoes and sells them by the barrel to vendors in Tanzania. The vendors then sell them to Tanzanians at a reasonable price, and the money raised sponsors the education of orphans.
Pictured here are makeshift sandals Marge Hamberg fashioned from 2-liter bottles and rope. They are indicative of the type of sandals that some of the orphans and impoverished children in Tanzania wear (real sandals featured on bottom left side). (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
Though there has been no direct communication between Hamberg’s group and the orphans, Hamberg has indirectly heard positive news about them.
“One of the ladies that I’m acquainted with through Stuff for the Poor went to Tanzania last year and saw the boys, and they’re doing well. That’s kind of all we heard,” she said. “This year we want to have more contact with them and send them letters and encouragement.”
Hamberg’s son-in-law is from Kenya, and her family took a trip to Africa last year, which gave them a glimpse of how the shoe vendors operate.
“We saw people just on the side of the road or in front of buildings, and they put a blanket or towel out; and they have shoes out there, so they sell the shoes very reasonably,” she said.
The trip also showed Hamberg how just about any shoe will do as a donation.
“It’s really ironic; when we were in Africa, we were in Nairobi and that’s a major city, but people go to work and they have business suits on and high heels, so any kind of shoe is good.”
Shoes do not have to be brand new to be donated. Stuff for the Poor accepts shoes that are worn but still able to be worn.
Westlake helps in the effort not only by providing a network of parishioners to contribute, but also by promoting and publicizing the cause.
Karen Klaus, Westlake’s director of children and family ministry, explained how the effort fits in with the church’s mission.
“As far as Westlake wanting to really offer hands-on practical expressions of God’s love to folks in our community and beyond, this is just an awesome way to do that,” she said.
The staff at Westlake was impressed at the number of shoes donated last year.
“It looked like a mountain of shoes in our lobby,” Klaus said.
Klaus said donating old shoes is an easy way to give to a community in need, and she hopes the effort serves as a “first step” for people to begin giving more.
“I think it just creates an awareness of seeing needs and searching your own heart and your soul and what God is prompting you to do,” she said.
Providence Rubingisa, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, co-founded Stuff for the Poor in 2007. After spending time in the U.S., he looked for a way to give back to Rwanda, but found a more stable government and recipient in Tanzania.
When Rubingisa realized many Rwandan children did not have the things American children threw out once the items got old, the idea for Stuff for the Poor was born.
Anyone interested in contributing to the cause is encouraged to drop off their old shoes any Sunday this month. Donations can be brought to Westlake Community Church, which holds services in the Cosman Cultural Center Sundays at 10 a.m.
More information can be found at stuffforthepoor.org and westlakecommunity.org.
