Provide less fortunate students with school shoes that would make their journey to school safer and more convenient.

  Objective: collect shoes no longer used by students in the urban areas to donate to these less fortunate ones

Beneficiaries

  Through the efforts of Poveda’s Social Action Moderator (Kritzia Santos); chosen communities:

  Tanay, Rizal   Morong, Bataan   Marinduque   Sitio Ibayo, Quezon City

Donors and Benefactors

  Saint Pedro Poveda College

  SCOP and Guadixian Club

  collect from every class weekly; a year-round collection

Shoe Requirements

  Black leather school shoes

  Sneakers

  Thick-soled and can fully cover the feet

  Old but good-conditioned

Mechanics:

  Shine/clean the shoes

  Put inside a recycled plastic bag

  Label according to size and gender (indicate if unisex)

Distribution Process

“At present, there is no specific system followed in distributing shoes. Once shoes are collected, they are stored first and tallied until there is enough for the certain community assigned for that wave of distribution.

After which, the boxes of shoes will be transported to the community where the shoes will be distributed to the children or given to the community moderators for checking and eventual distribution.”

  -Checking system   -What to do with shoes that do not fit the requirements   -Other alternatives to solve the issue at hand   -Re-evaluate distribution process   -Can we know how many students need the shoes,

their shoe sizes, etc.?

  I'd like to ask you for your help about a project similar to Love In A Shoebox. It's called Sole For A Soul (SFS). A member of my organization in ADMU asked if our org, the Humanitarian Affairs Club, could help in some way with SFS. The goal of this project is to provide shoes to kids who live in areas which require them to walk for hours to their schools. The project's solution to this is to get donations from kids in the urban areas in the form of shoes that fit the following requirements:-Black leather school shoes-Sneakers-Thick-soled and can fully cover the feet-Old but good-conditionedThe project was implemented last year and has been continued this year in Saint Pedro Poveda College. With regards to the efficiency of its operations, the project has received donations that did not fit the requirements (ex. worn out shoes, high heels)When I was told about the distribution process of the project, I couldn't help but compare it to that of Love In A Shoe Box. Your project this year required you to accept donations that were already wrapped up in boxes containing things unknown to you. For SFS, the shoes were received individualized bags that had labels indicating shoe size and for which gender it should be worn.Do you think that, if SFS took on a similar personal approach like that of Love In A Shoe Box (ex. letting donors have their way with the donation and choosing their beneficiaries), it would be more effective? How did this approach do for you this year?Any comments or suggestions on this would be very welcome. I do hope you can help us out, Praisee.-Ruth

  First of all, let me commend that awesome project (SFS). Re. your questions, it actually depends on whether or not you have a specific and consistent group/beneficiary in mind. Because for the Love in a Shoebox project, the personal approach clicked very well but that was because I had a specific beneficiary with a more or less consistent list of children (Aeta Children's Home). With SFS, would that also be the case? Or what you have is only a certain community with their number of children? Because last 2011, when I still had a lot of time, I included in the Love in A Shoebox project beneficiaries the villages in Zambales. But there, I did not take the personal approach. Rather, I just gave the approximate number of boys and girls in each village and asked for people who would like to adopt the village as a whole. That also went well. I'd say if all you have is a community without a stable/consistent list of kids, it will be difficult to take the personal approach. If your problem is that the shoes donated tend to not fit the needs, I suggest that you guys simply indicate the exact kinds of shoes needed and what people should avoid giving. If there are any other ways I can help out, just let me know! I'd love to take part. -Praise