"LEO... large enough to care about the big issues... small enough to care about the individual"The shoe story
What if you didn’t have shoes?
Imagine you are a child again. Every day you have to walk to school and the only road leading there is an old dirt road of sand and stones. Now imagine you are walking that same road bare foot. This is exactly what most of the children at a very poor village school called ‘Sumanasara’ faced on a daily basis
A surprise donation
When in early 2007 we received a donation of about £150 by surprise, we asked ourselves where this money could be used most effectively. Know that in 2007 we weren’t even a charity yet, but one of us was volunteering in the Kurunegala area. There he had been teaching at a school where there wasn’t even chalk to write on the ‘blackboard’. And at this same school were these shoeless children.
What to do, what to do?
We talked to the principal of the school who told us that actually the children have to wear ties to school as this is a government rule however, she believed that shoes were much more help to these children than ties.
Christmas coming early
With the donation we were able to get over 35 shoeless children brand new shoes. Their happiness receiving these shoes we can only compare to a child getting the Christmas present it only dared dreaming off!
These shoes are said to last for at least two year preventing all kinds of foot injuries these children sustained on a daily basis by walking bare foot.
