MANY of us take shoes for granted but for some people they mean more than items worn on your feet.
Globally it is estimated that 300 million children and 1.5 billion people do not have adequate footwear to protect them and provide the comfort and protection they need.
Last week the Williamstown Rotary Club was one of the first organisations in Victoria to receive a visit from the Butterfly Movement.
Established less than 18 months ago the charity has collected more than 72,000 pairs of shoes which have been provided to children in Tanzania and Indigenous Australia.
Williamstown Rotary member and district governor nominee Murray Verso said the club is happy to be a driver to promote the collection of shoes for a good cause.
“We’re always looking for ways we can help people and this is a very worthwhile project,” Dr Verso said.
“This seems like an easy cause to support, you can ask friends of family or people in the community to donate their old shoes which will be stored in collection points yet to be determined.”
“It’s a simple way of benefitting needy people in Africa and Australia. We want to support shoe collections in Victoria.”
The Butterfly Movement chief executive officer Dalice Kennedy wants to raise awareness in Melbourne of its project in 2013 to collect 100,000 pairs of shoes for re-distribution to people needing an opportunity to change their future prospects.
“The aim of this visit specifically is to raise the support for a Victorian shoe drive to run later this year,” Ms Kennedy said.
“While shoes have priceless benefits they remain out of reach for so many, if we can change the lies of 100,000 people this year we are off to a great start.”
