The vision for Samaritan’s Feet was conceived over 28 years ago on one hot summer afternoon at a camp in Lagos, Nigeria when a stranger from Wisconsin befriended a young African boy. The young boy, like so many other children in Africa and around the world, had never known the comfort and security of owning a pair of tennis shoes. This “Good Samaritan” gave a life-changing gift and a message of hope to that 9-year old boy. He gave him his first pair of shoes.
With that new pair of shoes for inspiration, Emmanuel Ohonme went on to compete in sports activities in Africa. Specifically, he developed a love as well as superior talent for competitive basketball. His skill and confidence continued to flourish; his hard work and determination to succeed finally paid off. He was offered the chance to attend an institution of higher learning in America under a full basketball scholarship! He met his wife, Tracie, while attending the University of North Dakota (Lake Region) and he later earned an executive position in a leading technology company. In spite of his successes in America, Manny never forgot the other little boys and girls in Africa who were still living under the strain of poverty, drug abuse, war, gangs and other criminal activity. Determined to help impoverished people in Africa, Manny left the comfort and security of his executive position to birth the vision of Samaritan’s Feet.
Samaritan’s Feet is a non-profit organization dedicated to changing lives through Shoes of Hope distributions around the world. 300 million people wake up each morning without a pair of shoes to protect their feet from injury and disease. Shoes of Hope is an innovative project with a goal to equip the feet of 10 million impoverished children, with 10 million pairs of athletic shoes, over the next 10 years. In America and around the world through shoe relief missions we will bring a life-changing message of hope, peace, and love. In addition, our “Shoe of Hope” back-to-school shoe drive program will help support and equip underprivileged families with shoes. The drive will be launched in several cities around the country.
Get Involved:
Donate to Samaritan's Feet.
Host a Shoe Drive. Millions of children are barefoot today and may never have a pair of shoes without your help. Shoes protect children from injury and disease, which leads to the death of a person every 15 seconds somewhere in the world. To us in America they are mostly seen as a fashion statement, but the shoes you raise may be life of death for a child. The new shoes you raise will be distributed along with a new pair of socks. A volunteer will tenderly wash the feet of the recipients and share with them a story of hope. Children will be challenged to dream big dreams and believe that they can achieve wonderful things for themselves and contribute to the good of all mankind, just as the little Nigerian boy has done in establishing Samaritan's Feet.
6 ways that you can make a difference.
Source: Samaritan's Feet
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