TERRE HAUTE — Samaritan’s Feet and the CANDLES Holocaust Museum are partnering up to change lives — one pair of shoes at a time.
CANDLES’ officials along with Emmanuel Ohonme, president and founder of Samaritan’s Feet — a nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting shoes for underprivileged children worldwide — announced their plan Saturday to collect 1 million pairs of shoes for the children of Darfur. The campaign is called “Holocaust Shoes for Darfur.”
“I want you to know from my experience, shoes are very important to children and to poor people who want to walk,” CANDLES’ founding director Eva Kor said.
She spoke about the one pair of shoes she was lucky to have during her time in Auscwitz. She said she didn’t take them off for four months because she was afraid someone would steal them and they kept her feet guarded from the rats that invested the concentration camp.
At least 200,000 have died and 2.5 million people have left their homes since the violence began in the Sudanese region of Darfur more than three years ago.
Rebels in Darfur, who felt the region was neglected, attacked government targets, triggering the violence. The Sudanese government then backed Arab Muslims to retaliate against dark-complected African Muslims in Darfur.
In November, the museum had launched a children’s letter-writing campaign to stop the killing in Darfur. The goal was 100,000 letters, but only 4,000 letters were collected.
“I guess this was too political an issue,” Kor said about the campaign, noting collecting shoes will still help and isn’t political.
Founded in 2003, Samaritan’s Feet is an international ministry “focused on brining a life-changing message of hope to youths and children through sports and recreational adventures,” according to its Web site, www.samaritansfeet.org. Children in 42 countries get their feet washed and equipped with a pair of shoes. Its goal is to collect 10 million pairs of shoes over the next 10 years.
Ohonme was born in Nigeria, and received his first pair of shoes from a missionary from Wisconsin when he was 9-years-old. He was able to play sports in his shoes and develop a basketball talent that got him a full scholarship to the University of North Dakota.
“We’re trying to inspire hope around the world to poor children by helping provide a basic need, a pair of shoes,” Ohonme said Saturday. “What we’re doing here today is not just about CANDLES, it is bigger than CANDLES. It is bigger than Samaritan’s Feet. It’s bigger than you. It’s bigger than I.”
Also on board to help with Holocaust Shoes for Darfur are Indiana State University football and basketball coaches Trent Miles and Kevin McKenna.
“I think this is a great thing to be a part of,” McKenna said. “My feet are bad, but I’ll go barefoot for the cause this year, for sure.”
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis basketball coach Ron Hunter coached a game barefoot last year to bring awareness to the cause.
ISU is supposed to play IUPUI this year, though McKenna hopes the whole team will be barefoot this year, he said with a laugh.
Miles said this is important to give his team a sense of giving back because “they’re not entitled to a scholarship, they need to earn it and get out and give back.”
“This is our home, this is our community and we want to do all we can to be active in it,” he said. “It’s our responsibility and those are the points we try to get across to our team.”
Names of those affected by the Holocaust will be labeled inside the shoes as a memorial, so each pair of shoes from the Holocaust Shoes for Darfur project will be donated in a Holocaust survivor’s name.
Shoes can be dropped off in any size at the CANDLES Museum. Dr. Alex Kor, a podiatrist, said the brand or price of the shoe doesn’t matter as long as they have a stiff middle. All shoes must be new.
Those who don’t have time to go to the store, can donate money for shoes on the Samaritan’s Feet Web site.
For more information, visit www.samaritansfeet.org or www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org, or call 1-866-833-SHOE (7463) or 812-234-7881.
Crystal Garcia can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or crystal.garcia@tribstar.com.
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CANDLES collecting shoes for Darfur
Valley organization teams with Samaritan’s Feet to collect 1 million pairs of shoes
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