Shoes, thoughts on international aid, and irony

What to do with old running shoes is a constant concern for avid runners. Runners are told that to prevent injury we should replace our footwear every 300-500 miles, which works out to a new pair of shoes about every 2-3 months for some. This leads to a lot of shoes piling up that even though they may no longer be “roadworthy”, still have a lot of life in them.

About 2 years ago a lab assistant working in Malawi told our running group in Chapel Hill that Malawians need shoes. Great! We’ll set out a collection bin at the coffee shop and I’ll bring some pairs of shoes over in my suitcase the next time I traveled to Malawi. However, the “Shoes for Africa” collection was overwhelmingly popular. Over 500 pairs of shoes soon accumulated in a rented storage space and volunteers were recruited weekly to clean and organize the shoes. The only problem was - how to get them to Malawi? While it was a great idea and there was lots of enthusiasm for getting shoes to Malawians, the logistics hadn’t been thought through clearly enough. However, thanks to the hard work on the behalf of many, about 100 pairs of shoes were shipped over to the UNC Project last spring.

The first distribution of shoes were to the executive committee of a school in Dzama, a village on the outskirts of Lilongwe where UNC Project funds a school and supports community activities.

Other shoes were given to various guards and clinic aides (very low paid workers at UNC Project) and I brought a few pairs down to the Porter’s Race on Mt. Mulanje in July. I finally distributed the remaining pairs of shoes to the 500 Mile Centre at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, where they will be fitted on the end of prosthetic legs. The 500 Miles Centre fits and builds prosthetic limbs for disabled children and adults. Previously the only place in the country to get prosthetics was in Blantyre, 300 km south of Lilongwe, and they could barely serve a fraction of those in need. I can't imagine a service that provides a more immediate and dramatic improvement in the quality of life to a person. Getting something that allows an individual to be more mobile, and therefore have a more normal childhood, receive an education, and participate in society more fully must be truly transforming. This Trailheads shoe is being fit on a newly finished prosthetic leg that is going to a teenage Somalian refugee.

However, while shoes are very valuable in Malawi and all of the distributed pairs were greatly appreciated, everyone involved in this venture experienced many of the pitfalls of foreign aid firsthand. First, while people want shoes, if given the option, is that what they would choose first? Or will they take the shoes to the market to sell and buy food for their family or other items a little higher on the priority list. When gifts are given it disrupts the social dynamic. If all of the residents of one village are given shoes, then their position in relation to the other surrounding villages changes. What happens to the local shoemaker? What happens to those who depend on selling shoes for their livelihood? Also, how do you set up an equitable distribution plan? Shoes were collected before there was any plan for any stage of the distribution. How would they get halfway across the world? Once they arrived, who would receive them? And for an organization that promotes environmental conservation, what about the carbon footprint of shipping all of those shoes? We learned that it is much better to work through established organizations, such as Soles2Soles that work on a larger scale and have distribution networks in place. Also, local is often better. Nike (http://www.nikereuseashoe.com/) collects used running shoes and uses them to make track and other sport surfaces.

And how's this for irony....after distributing over 100 pairs my own running shoes were stolen! Along with ALL of my running clothes. However, in true African generosity I had about 6 pairs given to me by the end of the day and the good news is that I will still be able to run in this weekend's Lilongwe half marathon :)