Okay, so I’ve talked about the fact that I’m not sure that I know what causes I want to back or support, but this one has kind of come up and has triggered me to want to talk about it.
First watch this video here: One Day Video or click below.
- In some developing nations, children must walk for miles to food, clean water and to seek medical help.
- Cuts and sores on feet can lead to serious infection.
- Often children can not attend school barefoot.
- In Ethiopia, approximately one million people are suffering from Podoconiosis (a debilitating and disfiguring disease caused by walking barefoot in volcanic soil).
- Podoconiosis is 100% preventable with basic foot hygiene & wearing shoes.
The premise of the event is that on April 5th, people should go barefoot in order to raise awareness of those who are unable to afford shoes, don’t have access to shoes, or are already suffering from the ramifications of not having shoes.
So I thought about how it would be to not have shoes, and it was tough. I really had a hard time imagining this as a reality.
I mean sure, we’ve heard our grandparents' stories of walking to school up hill, both ways, in the snow, with no shoes, or shoes with newspaper soles…but let’s get real, this was like 70 years ago, and these are kids who are suffering now, with no hopes of the American Dream or pulling themselves up by their non existent bootstraps.
Not to mention how many shoes we all have for work, play, occasions, for poor weather, for nice weather,etc.
Then I thought about what this movement is asking. Go a day without shoes. Not a week, not a month, not a year, not your lifetime. A day. I looked at the calendar and realized, the event is happening on a Tuesday. Subconsciously I must have hoped for a Saturday or something, because I was greatly disappointed. On Tuesdays I’m at school which is part of a medical school which would most definitely not allow me to be barefoot.
Hmm. So I can’t do this based upon basic laws of health, safety, sanitation, etc. Interesting...
...and if I'm being completely honest, the only time going barefoot in the city sounds like a good idea is maybe at 2am when my heels start to hurt. It is not an ideal way to spend your day (worried where you're stepping, broken glass everywhere, temperature is cold/hot, people stepping on your toes on the bus, etc).
I mean these are mild complaints compared to what the video listed, but based upon our lives, these are things we would want to put up with...even though by comparison these are annoyances.
BAM. Reason enough to be concerned about this and that moved me into thinking about how we can be creative about this. The guy who told me about this event is trying to figure out how he can implement this also. He might have to settle on flip flops based upon where he works, but really, this is actually HARD to do here (here is anywhere if you have access to a computer, Internet and are reading this).
So while I ask you readers questions all the time and sometimes they are rhetorical and sometimes I get a response, I’m asking and looking for some concrete ideas. How can we spread the word? How do we raise awareness? Most importantly, how do we show the gravity of this if we can't go barefoot?
I'm so struck by the irony that we can’t easily be barefoot in our society, and there are millions of people who don't have a choice but to be without shoes.
Please share your ideas and share this post!
For more information on how you can get involved, please check out the official site: http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/
Until next time,
E
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7
No comments:
Post a Comment