Attention anyone with a closet: Those shoes you no longer want are desperately needed to fight the human tragedy of global poverty.  That’s the message being delivered by Victory Life Church, which has launched a drive to collect 25,000 pairs of shoes to help the poor.  Used and new shoes can be dropped off at 901 CC Woodson, Brownwood TX 76801. The shoes that Victory Life Church collects will be delivered to Soles4Souls, an international anti-poverty organization that monetizes used shoes and clothing to create sustainable jobs and fund direct relief efforts, including distribution of new shoes and clothing.

Founded in 2006, the organization has distributed more than 26 million pairs of shoes in 127 countries. Soles4Souls – which holds the highest rating from nonprofit watchdog Charity Navigator — will convert every used pair of shoes collected from the community into a value-added social currency to achieve positive change, both humanitarian and economic.   Most of the reusable shoes will be distributed to microenterprise programs that create jobs in Haiti and other poor nations.  The resulting revenue will help fund the free distribution of new shoes in the U.S. and overseas.  Among its relief programs, the organization has distributed over 200,000 new pairs of shoes to help Philippine victims of Typhoon Haiyan.

The connection between poverty and shoes is well documented.  The World Bank estimates that approximately 400 million children worldwide – more than the entire U.S. population – live in pronounced poverty.  Millions of these children will grow up never having had a pair of shoes, resulting in significant ramifications for their health and well being.  Lacking proper footwear, countless children will not be able or permitted to attend school.  And tens of millions of these poverty-stricken, barefoot boys and girls will be infected with soil-transmitted parasitic diseases like hookworm, causing lasting suffering and lifelong debilitation. Soles4Souls is a not for profit global social enterprise committed to fighting the devastating impact and perpetuation of poverty.  The organization advances its anti-poverty mission by collecting new and used shoes and clothes from individuals, schools, faith-based institutions, civic organizations and corporate partners, then distributing those shoes and clothes both via direct donations to people in need and by provisioning qualified micro-enterprise programs designed to create jobs in poor and disadvantaged communities.  Since it began, Soles4Souls has distributed more than 26 million pairs of shoes in 127 countries.