Soles4Souls

300 million children in the world go without shoes every day.

That’s a staggering number.

Is it a big deal, you ask, when we have global problems like starvation and clean water to worry about, too?

Yes. It’s a very big deal. Shoes help prevent the spread of parasitic diseases.  Many serious conditions, like hookworm and threadworm, can penetrate the bottom of a bare foot. These conditions can lead to infection, amputation and death.

And in many developing nations, shoes are a required part of a school uniform. If a child does not have, or cannot afford to buy shoes, he or she cannot attend school.

Shoes are something we take for granted every day, and yet, they are such a powerful defense in the global battle to help impoverished nations be healthier and more educated.

There’s a fantastic organization called Soles4Souls that is doing something about it. Soles 4 Souls is a shoe charity. They collect gently used shoes and monies to put shoes on the feet of people who need them most – worldwide.

To date, Soles4Souls has donated over 16 million pairs of shoes. Awesome.

A lot of organizations have rallied around this wonderful cause, including flipflop wines. I met the fantastic folks at flipflop at BlogHer, and was impressed not only with their wine, but with their commitment to such an awesome charity. For every bottle of flipflop wine that you purchased, flipflop donates a pair of flipflop sandals to Soles4Souls. Big awesome.

My gal pals and I over at Have Wine, Will Drink knew that we wanted to work with flipflop on a feature because of their great wine and great commitment to charity. So we’re hosting a fab feature with flipflop this week on the HWWD website. And Wednesday, we’ll be hosting our third #WineBuzz Twitter party at 6 p.m. PST/9 EST to talk more about flipflop and Soles4Souls – the last two have been an absolute crazy-fun blast, so try to join us!

But I also want to bring attention to a really fantastic program that flipflop is offering up to bloggers as part of their work with Souls4Soles. It’s called the flippin’ good deeds challenge.

The flippin’ good deeds challenge is a way for bloggers to get involved with donating shoes to Soles4Souls…and have a chance to win a trip on one of Soles4Souls distribution excursions, so she can experience firsthand what it’s like to put the shoes in the hands of people who need them.

Soles4Souls gives you all the stuff you need to get started, too. They have promotional materials to print out, tips, etc. so doing the shoe drive is easy and fun. You can ship the shoes, or drop them off at a donation center if one is nearby.

This is a fantastic way to recycle used items in a way that I personally never thought imaginable.

If this cause speaks to your heart, I encourage you to head right over to the flippin’ good deeds challenge page of Soles4Souls website and get started. Or share this post with another blogger who might be interested. It’s so easy to make a difference.

And here’s a video from David Georges, flipflop wines’ vintner, and the CEO of Soles4Souls, all about this really cool program.

disclosure: flipflop wines sent me some wine to try, but did not require me to write about this cause. I just think it’s really awesome, and I hope you do too.

Tagged as: flipflop wines