An appeal is going out to schools all around the country for tens of thousands of "gently worn, preloved sports shoes" for children in South African townships.
The appeal comes from a charity called In My Shoes which started up prior to the Covid-19 pandemic but had to put its ambitions on hold until now, with the launch of its first national Irish campaign.
Founder Ciarán McHugh said the donations "will help make a real difference in the lives of children a world away".
The Sligo man initially began working informally with schools and families in 2019 after he had come back from a work trip to South Africa where he had been struck by seeing so many children running out to play cricket barefoot.
He realised that back in his own home there were plenty of shoes in the attic in good condition which his children had simply grown out of.
Figuring that it would be the same story in many other households around the country, Mr McHugh set an initial goal of gathering up 500 pairs and ended up with 2,500.
Next he set out to collect 5,000 pairs, but ended up with 15,000 pairs in 2020 to send to charity partners in South Africa to distribute to children who needed them.
Now Mr McHugh and In My Shoes have their sights set on collecting even more shoes and are asking schools to come on board, register on the website, and help them gather as many pairs as possible to give them a second life on the feet of children in communities from Cape Town to Lesotho.
Mr McHugh said that he had never been involved in a project before where so many wanted to do so much for so little.
"In My Shoes seems to be a cause of its time," he said.
"A simple idea but one with the potential to impact thousands of lives, in however small a way, by connecting individual acts of kindness. With shoes comes school and education and hopefully a future," he added.
The campaign is live from 17 April to 28 April.
Thousands of custom designed boxes by Smurfit Kappa are at the ready to carry the donated shoes which will be collected by UPS from national schools across Ireland.
They will be brought to Sligo for sorting at a space donated by Sazerac Ireland at Hazelwood House with logistics support by Wavecrest Networks and these arrangements will make it all the easier for families and schools to support the campaign.
