When Ciaran McHugh visited Cape Town in South Africa some years ago on a business trip, he was struck by the fact that so many children were out playing sports in bare feet and thought about the many pairs of runners back in his own attic in Sligo.
They were all in perfectly good condition, it was just that his children had grown out of them.
Out of those thoughts grew an idea to gather up good, pre-loved runners and football boots to send them to children who needed them in the townships.
Mr McHugh set up "In My Shoes" and after a couple of campaigns locally which saw over 12,000 pairs of shoes shipped to South Africa, the campaign went national.
An appeal was sent out to national schools all over Ireland a couple of months ago and today at a big warehouse at Hazelwood House outside Sligo, the results were clear. There had been a huge response.
A fresh load of bags and boxes full of shoes arrived courtesy of UPS for sorting by a team of volunteers who were already busy working with previous deliveries and there were piles of already packed boxes lining the walls.
The bags and boxes of donated shoes came from pupils in from almost 300 national schools from all corners of the country. For the last few weeks, volunteers have been sorting the shoes according to category and size and packing them for dispatch.
Mr McHugh has said that the response has been "massive", and that the shoes will make a huge difference to the lives of the children who will receive them. For some it will be the difference between being able to go to school or not and will allow them to play football and other sports with proper footwear, he said.
He has already received a tremendous response from the townships which received donations of shoes in 2019 and 2020 and knows that the gifts mean an awful lot to the children.
"It's also about hope and dignity and the right to basic things like clothes and shoes," he says.
Mr McHugh estimates that when they are shipped for distribution by charity partners in the townships and sports clubs, there will be up to 25,000 pairs of shoes delivered in specially made boxes donated by Smurfit Kappa.
Volunteer Catherine McGee, who was the main liaison person with the schools who supported the campaign, said it was not so much about how many shoes were gathered but about the engagement between the children in Ireland and those in South Africa.
She said it was about children in Ireland sending a gift to a child in Africa and some children had written lovely little notes which they had put in with their shoes for the children.
Ms McGee said there was a huge environmental and recycling element to the campaign which resonated with the children also.
"These shoes can't be recycled because they contain too much glue and plastic," she said, "so they would otherwise end up in landfill".
"By donating them to In My Shoes", she said, "if they have a second life in them, we can find a second little pair of feet for that second life."
The project solves two problems, Mr McHugh believes, what to do with shoes children have grown out of and how to give children who cannot afford sports shoes, what they need.
A lot of unpaid work has gone into the campaign with volunteers from clubs and schools, An Garda Síochána, different companies and individuals all stepping up to help.
Local cafes have supplied food and the space for sorting was donated by the owners of Hazelwood House, Sazerac.
It is too late to donate for this year's campaign but people are being asked to think about next year. Ms McGee says she will be in touch with schools again in September and hopes that sports clubs around the country might also come on board.
In the meantime, she hopes that families will think about the runners children grow out of and put them aside for donation if they are in good condition, rather than binning them.
