Two years ago, I posted about Tom's 'One Day Without Shoes' (see the 2010 March entry). I wasn't very positive at the time, the entire thing seemed aimed at showing barefoot was dangerous, horrible, and each and every kid should always be in shoes. Only when asked further, did the Toms people say they worked with other charities (providing food, clean water, school supplies, etc, etc) and their shoes went to those places where they were needed most, but this information was impossible to find on their site, even with some clicking around.
I'm happy to say this year, their 'learn more' page (http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/learn-more) is a lot more obvious about this, showing a map of where kids have to deal with sand fleas, hookworm, the particularly caustic soil that is the cause of podoconiosis, and far greater than normal dangerous debris from living on a landfill. Their FAQ also acknowledges, among other things, that 'Yes, there are some places in the world where going barefoot is widely accepted' and that they are working together with a larger charity providing a far wider range of things, giving their shoes to the kids who actually need them most.
The slogans and banners, which are of course limited to one- or two-liners, are still less obvious about all this, and I'm a bit sad to still see people on forums and twitter who apparently didn't read the details and are going on about 'any poor child who doesn't have shoes to wear all day, every day' or the hardships of going without shoes even on a nice, tiled sidewalk in a mall in the Western world, free of parasites and similar threats, but at least the info is there for those who look. A huge improvement. I can support the campaign this way :-)
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
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