A pair of beauties
Hello everyone. I’m very pleased to be able to tell those of you who helped us gather a huge amount of shoes a month or two ago, that they have been distributed to people who needed them.
If you remember, we had collected the running shoes in order to take them with us to Cairo, Egypt on Jan. 31. The shoes were destined for The Found School, a school for Sudanese refugee children, which our friend Mary-Jean helps to run. Mary- Jean had asked us to bring shoes as most of the children attend the school, walking barefoot through the streets of Cairo. These streets are apparently in poor condition, which leads to cuts on the feet of the kids, then, infection sets in. These children, many of whom are orphans, then suffer greatly from the infections as they have no real medical back-up.
We had packed, in two suitcases and a very big golf bag, about 116 pairs of running shoes to take with us. Sadly, the shoes didn’t make it to the school when our trip was cancelled as the protestations and demonstrations began in Cairo and the rest of Egypt.
So…what to do with 116 + pairs of running shoes? We contacted an orphanage in Mexico through friends of ours who had worked there. Unfortunately, the orphanage was about 6-7 hours drive away from Puerto Vallarta where Westjet lands after leaving from our airport here in Comox. However, the orphanage put us in touch with another group of people who work with children in PV, but they were not available to us. Finally, we heard of a priest, Fr. Javier Rueda Flores Sanuda, who had started a new church in the heart of PV, working with inner city families. He agreed to take them from us if we could get them to PV.
Westjet ( God bless ‘em) agreed to ship the shoes free, as humanitarian aid, if someone would travel with them. As it happened, our daughter-in-law Andi, along with her Mum Jo and brother Rob, was going to Mexico for a week on a personal matter. The ladies agreed to chaperone the shoes for us, so we got them to the airport last Saturday and off they all went. Fr. Sanuda met them at the airport and he was delighted to take the shoes from our gang.
Now, only a few pairs of shoes remain at our home. We sorted the more adult sized shoes and took them to the local soup kitchen and to one of the thrift shops. If anyone is heading to Mexico or to another place where shoes are needed by children, let me know and I can have some ready for you. God is good, and so are the people of the Comox Valley who donated the shoes.
Goodbye now and God bless.
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