Zambian children receive shoes through Coast charity
Tue 30 June 2009
Stacey Roberts, Journalism
Orphaned Zambian children are set to receive their first-ever pair of shoes after a Moffat Beach company donated 500 pairs of thongs to a “Shoes for Africa” appeal recently.
Souls Australia Massage Thongs Managing Director Jim Doyle and business partner Helen wanted to help after hearing about the appeal on ABC Radio.
“We heard about the appeal and we thought we’d go and ... donate some thongs,” Mr Doyle said.
“It was a pretty good decision to get behind it, it’s going to a very, very good cause.”
The Shoes for Africa appeal began after Brisbane businessman Danny Underwood and his wife took a trip to Zambia last year and were appalled at the deprivation they witnessed.
Mr Underwood and his wife were particularly shocked to see young children trying to play soccer in bare feet with a bundle of newspaper as a ball.
On their return Mr Underwood wrote about the trip in his company newsletter, sparking a huge response from staff who offered to donate shoes and help raise money.
Danley Construction Products marketing and “shoe” co-ordinator Melissa Houghton said that, after local news outlets picked up the story, they had received a flood of inquiries that “turned into a tsunami”, particularly after 612 Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) Madonna King aired the appeal on her program.
“We have 74,285 pairs of shoes boxed in our warehouse here that will be packed into three 40-foot shipping containers and sent to Zambia over the coming months,” Ms Houghton said.
As the ABC team and Mr Underwood looked into the status of the The Ebenezer Child Care Trust (ECCT) orphanage in Livingstone, they realised that there was a Maleny group already raising money for the program.
Directors of Friends of Ebenezer Australia Lenore and Richard Buron had been friends with the director of the orphanage and her husband, Mrs Rangi Chara and Dr Nage Chara, for over 15 years and had been involved with the various programs ECCT had run.
“Lenore and I will be visiting ... again in September and hope to be involved in distributing the shoes to needy people in the city and surrounding villages,” Mr Buron said.
“Dr Chara assures us that the shoes will be of great benefit in curbing such complaints as bilharzia (a parasitic disease) and jigger sores (parasites infecting the feet).”
Friends of Ebenezer also held fund-raising events and sold hand-crafted cards, morning teas and dinners, with the proceeds going to the orphanage and primary school.
Since 2001 the ECCT also began a feeding program for street kids, purchased land to build houses for orphans and land for a farm so they could be self-sufficient in regards to food.
“Ranji’s very first street kid has now completed his high school with final marks in the top band for the whole country,” Mr Buron said.
“Another orphan has gone on to teacher’s college and is now the head of the ECCT primary school.
“All this has been achieved by a 60-year-old Sri Lankan housewife and grandmother who had never attempted anything like it in her life before.”
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