100 Stories of Change
It’s been a journey of 16 years.. started with touching upon the most ignored rather non issue of clothing to use the old material as a currency for development. Many people still think that Goonj is about collection and distribution of clothes .. but how your old material has come up as a new resource for village development across the country, how the old material has been able to lay pipelines in the country for channelizing tonnes of need based material to how it has become a genesis of a parallel economy which is not Cash based but Trash based !!
From creating large mangroves to bridges in remote India, the old material and Goonj has a lot to share through 100 Stories of Change!! Thank you all for becoming a part of this journey and showing so much of love and faith..
Happy feet and the daily puddles of life !!
"Like cloth, shoe is a basic we hardly ever think about…you don’t have to walk barefoot to know that no one likes it… So if you see a child walking around without shoes, its not a choice, simply a compulsion, an inability to provide for this basic.. that creates an unmistakable chasm for many in village India. "
A row of shoes outside a village classroom.. is an enduring image of hope and learning.. and when you see broken slippers, broken shoes strewn all around.. That’s another enduring image of what’s missing…This story is about how shoes have helped many a happy feet jump across the little puddles of everyday life..
Over the last decade Goonj has consistently talked about shoes as an important need in village India.. It’s an apt metaphor of a needle in the times of machines.. The little needs in times of big challenges.. While we have been channelizing shoes from the cities to the villages, for people like me and you, it’s also a learning in mindful giving…the tying together of laces of a pair to ensure they remain useful.. Ensuring there are laces and sole etc… Basically giving wearable, usable shoes.. with dignity.
Each child’s story is unique but what’s common is the excitement of showing their new shoes to the parents when they get back home. Both feel encouraged and relieved (from an expense) by this little addition in their lives.… Our faith is further affirmed by the addition in attendance at school afterwards. An after effect is the disparity of haves and have not’s, taken away in one stroke.
Tens of thousands of shoes have reached out as part of our disaster relief work over the years. The outcome is millions of smiles, joy and happy feet …
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