KIDS FOR KIDS. Students of grades 9 and 11 at the  Billabong High School, Malad are raising awareness and funds to give footwear to thousands of children in the rural districts of Maharashtra. This footwear is made out of discarded shoes that would have otherwise gone into landfills. The refurbished shoes will transform into comfortable and trendy footwear for hundreds of children who walk barefoot to schools. This is done by the Greensole Foundation. The cost of footwear including refurbishment & actual distribution is only 199 INR a pair.

Just INR 20000 impacts 100 students.

Pic: The quality & design of the footwear is world-class & brings a big smile to a student.

The lack of something as simple as footwear (along with school suppliers and toilets) is one of the principal reasons why children leave school. In the rural areas of Maharashtra, the schools are often far from their homes and many children must walk many kilometres to their schools. The walk is across roads, fields, narrow paths and is difficult and unsafe. In summers when temperatures shoot into the 40 and 45C range it can be a nightmare. 

Lack of footwear makes this incredibly difficult and often is a chief reason for them to leave a school. Walking barefoot also leads to soil-transmitted diseases and parasites. This leads to sickness and ill health.

HOW ARE WE DOING THIS? 

I am doing this crowdfunding campaign in partnership with the Mumbai based NGO, Greensole Foundation. They refurbish old and discarded shoes with a minimum carbon footprint. These discarded shoes are kept away from landfills and end up transforming the lives of students in rural areas. They also retail, upcycled footwear towards building a self-sustaining social venture.

Since the Greensole Foundation is an NGO any funding made to this campaign is eligible for tax exemption under 80G of IT Act 196.

The money raised will be given directly after the campaign ends to the NGO. They will then use the funds to transform the lives of children from rural villages by providing them with recycled footwear. You will get an update on how many students in which school benefitted from your funding.

ABOUT ME

Hey there! My name is AARYA SONIK. I’m in 9 grade at Billabong High International School, Malad. It is my earnest endeavour to work hard towards providing footwear to 100 students who walk barefoot to school everyday.

I’ve undertaken this campaign because I believe this is a basic necessity for everyone.
I cannot imagine walking barefoot each day to school in extreme weather conditions. These kids are still doing brilliantly well despite these adverse conditions and circumstances. The fact that raising a MINIMUM of 20,000/- INR can provide footwear and transform the lives of at least a 100 children is something I’m very excited and driven about...”For it is in giving that we receive.” So let’s work together towards bringing a change into the lives of these fellow students in the rural areas of Maharashtra

IMPACT ON STUDENTS

 Watch the video below :

OUR PARTNER

Let's connect Souls to Soles:

At Greensole, we give discarded shoes a second life by refurbishing them to comfortable footwear and providing them to the people in need, contributing to environmental, social and economic good. The efforts have brought a smile to 1,30,000 beneficiaries so far.

Corporate Partners & Media Reach: 

We have partnered with over 55 leading corporates in the last couple of years who have sponsored for over 130,000 pairs of footwear. Some of them are Tata Steel, Adidas, Skechers, India Bulls, Axis Bank, ONGC, HDFC Sales, Allianz,. The corporate organization's partner with Greensole as a part of their CSR activity wherein they collect old shoes from the employees and also sponsor for the refurbishing cost. The cost of refurbishment & distribution is just Rs.199 per pair.

Greensole Origins :

As athletes, the founders of Greensole, Shriyans Bhandari and Ramesh Dhami ran hundreds of kilometers every year. They also ran through at least 3 to 4 pairs of sports shoes every year. The soles were in good condition but the shoe sides tore within months. The duo always wondered if they could find some use for the intact soles of these quality sports shoes. A bit of research led to the idea of refurbishing them into trendy slippers. That brainwave eventually spawned an eco-friendly enterprise that reuses shoe soles and is appropriately named Greensole.

LOCATION MAP

Under this school program, students across rural schools in Maharashtra will benefit. Greensole is located in Vashi.

TAX BENEFITS:

Funding for this campaign is eligible for tax breaks as NGO is a registered trust & you can avail of benefits under section 80G of the IT act. Funding from those with foreign passports is not eligible. If you are an Indian staying abroad you can fund this campaign. We also accept foreign credit and debit cards.

FEEDBACK THAT YOU GET

To ensure that there is complete transparency I shall get a report from NGO (this takes between 2 to 4 months usually after the funds are raised & transferred to them) telling me who benefitted from the funding. The details will then be posted on the UPDATES section of my campaign. As soon as I post an update, the platform will send an SMS and EMAIL alert to all the funders - i.e. to you. Click on the link on the email and you can read about who benefitted. That's transparent right.

The below image is an example of the FEEDBACK FORMAT that we will be shared with all my funders.

SCHOOLS WHERE WE PLAN TO DISTRIBUTE FOOTWEAR 

The below list totals to 26000 students across different schools across Maharashtra. We can distribute to more students if we raise more funds. This will help bring more smiles and cheers to students in rural schools.