On a recent trip to Ethiopia, I visited a number of podo clinics doing incredible work. One of the coolest innovations I’ve seen in podo treatment is training recovered podo patients to do outreach to new patients. At one such program, I met a woman who was well on her way to recovery – her feet fit into normal-sized shoes and the disease was no longer affecting her daily life as it had before. This woman was training new podo patients on the simple washing and cleaning techniques that can bring results in a matter of months. With her was her daughter, who was no more than three years old. While watching her mother give the training, this little girl was wearing a pair of shoes that TOMS had provided.
When I asked about the girl’s shoes, the clinic director translated and her mother replied that, having lived through the suffering, isolation, and stigma that podo brings with it, she was determined to keep her daughter’s feet protected from the soil. For this woman, shoes for her child are one of the most valuable resources in the world. We find this attitude is common among podo patients who have children, grandchildren, or younger siblings. If shoes are available, these patients are committed to ensuring that the children wear those shoes and wash the soil off their feet and legs every day. However, most podo patients are so financially poor to begin with, and so further economically impacted by the disease, that purchasing shoes for themselves or their children simply is not an option.
And that’s why we do what we do. We’re making great strides in Ethiopia, and I look forward to sharing many more stories and special moments with you here on the blog!
Signing off from the front lines of the One for One movement,
Jessica
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