Helping to put shoes on feet and smiles on faces

It’s hard to believe, but over two million shoes are thrown away every week in the UK. Shoes that many children in Africa would give anything to wear.

In 2008, Kiwi decided to take their position as shoe care experts more seriously. We launched the Shoe Aid for Africa campaign to collect unwanted shoes and send them to the many thousands of African children who desperately need them.

Video Clips

We collected an amazing 20,000 pairs, and towards the end of 2008, the entire Kiwi marketing team got stuck into the long and difficult task of sorting and pairing them.

In April 2009, the shoes started their journey from the UK to Mozambique, along with teams from Kiwi and Planet Aid UK to help distribute them. The teams visited many schools and local communities within the Sofala and Manica provinces, where they were gratefully received by thousands of happy smiling kids!

With the help of over 500 schools, scout groups and Sure Start centres from across the country, we’ve now collected over 124,000 pairs of shoes since the campaign launched in 2008, and we’re still going strong.

The Shoe Aid for Africa campaign makes a real difference to many thousands of kids in Africa. We’re looking forward to keeping it going for as long as we can, so please keep coming back to the site to hear about our latest news!

What the kids say

We love hearing from all the kids involved in Shoe Aid for Africa. Here’s just one of the many thousands of letters we received from kids who donated shoes:

"Hello my name is Andy and I am 9 years old. The shoes I have donated are the ones that I dearly loved and I played football with them and all kinds of sports with them so I hope you have a wonderful time with them. I want to be a footballer when I grow up and if that doesn't go well I can always get a job at the theatre selling tickets and popcorn. I am happy to give you these shoes. I don't know what I would do without my shoes.
From Andy
PS. I hope you really like my shoes and rock on"

And here’s a letter from a happy recipient:

"Hello. Before studying, I liked shoes a lot. I also liked eating spaghetti. I wanted to go to school but, as an orphan, I had no possibility. Now I was helped and I am studying. I had no shoes, but now I have them, so I thank you so much."