Cute Shoes For A Cause

 

When I was 19 years old, I worked for Target.  Just one of those thousand jobs I had.  I got two things from that job.  I got a very cute boyfriend named Pete, and I developed a love of Target. 

While Pete went by the wayside...the love of Target never waned.  They were a good company to work for.  In fact every morning the store manager would come by and make sure that all of us kids were eating our free meal so that we had energy and were healthy.  He was a really nice, caring man.  But that is what Target is about.  They actually care.  They do things to support charity all the time, and they were one of the first ones to jump on the  recycling bandwagon.

So naturally now that they have incorporated groceries...I go there more often than Safeway.  Lately with all my weight loss I have been buying "interim" clothes there.  I don't want to buy anything too expensive until I am done losing weight.  But I find myself with nothing that fits right anymore.  In fact this weekend I am going to go through all my clothes and send a big pile to Goodwill.  Someone a size larger than I am is going to be really happy.

At any rate while I was at Target last week I decided to look for some brown or tan sandals.  I couldn't really find any, but I did run across the sandals shown above.  I wasn't too sure I wanted to buy them, because I really didn't need another pair of flip flops, until I read the tag.  They are from a company called Buyamba Soles.  

On the tag it said that they are giving $100,000.00 to help underprivileged children in Uganda.  Naturally I bought a pair.  They are cute, they are comfy, they are leather, and they were 14.99.

I decided to look at their website.  This is an amazing project.  The company was created for the sole (no pun intended) purpose of giving jobs to single and unwed Mothers in Uganda.  The Mothers are paid a fair wage to create the beads.  The beads are made of rolled recycled paper.  They are cute, they almost look like seashells.  Through doing this, it has really given these women a purpose and hope where so many of them didn't have any.  Many of these women are HIV positive or have AIDS.  They have been outcast from their community and they have children they couldn't support.  Through this project these women now have jobs, some of them have been able to build houses, buy meds and even come together to form a community.  The kids get to eat and go to school. 

There is a very heartwarming video on their Facebook page.  You should check it out.  I also shared it to mine.  I think this is a great thing to do, because not only are they giving them money, but they are also giving them job security and allowing them to feel a sense of accomplishment.

I bought a second pair this week. 

So go to Target, spend the 15 bucks, get cute sandals, help people...it's a win/win!