Good Intentions Are Not Enough

Every time I turn around another movie star or charitable event is collecting shoes to send to disaster zones or developing countries. Just today I was reading a frivolous article about Oscar gift bags (and no I don’t generally read this type of article – long story) in the article was information on yet ANOTHER charity collecting shoes:

“Shoes for Africa” was this events’ charity, and guests were encouraged to donate a pair of new or worn shoes to the theashefoundation.org:
-”The shoes will be shipped in April to South Africa for a ‘Christmas in July’ distribution for the 2010 World Cup” “We just returned from Ghana three weeks ago, and we brought 2000 pair of shoes, clothes and toys to needy children” “The foundation is less than  2 years old, but we have completed three trips in one year so far: South Africa, Mosambique, and Ghana”

And here’s Project Haiti trying to donate 50,000 shoes to Haiti

Thanks for visiting 50000shoes.com. Donate shoes now to the Haitian earthquake victims who desperately need appropriate footwear. As little as $5 (that’s the price of a venti frap, by the way) provides two pairs of shoes.

I’ve blogged about the problems with donated shoes so many times, as have other aid bloggers, that it’s incredibly frustrating to see this poor aid practice continue and thrive. Let me just say this one more time.

Please STOP donating shoes overseas. And stop supporting any organization that collects and distributes donated shoes overseas. They don’t understand good aid practices and they haven’t done any serious evaluations of their work.

Want to learn more?

Blog posts specifically about shoe donations

Donating shoes and other aid fads - Good Intentions are Not Enough

Nobody wants your old shoes: How not to help in Haiti - AidWatch guest post by Alanna Shaikh

We’re shocked to discover Jessica Simpson doesn’t read our blog - AidWatch on the 50,000 shoe project

What IS it with the SHOES? – Tales from the Hood

Three bad ideas for helping Haiti – Blood and Milk

Blog posts about in-kind donations in general

Good donorship and some early lessons learned from the earthquake response in Haiti – Good Intentions are not enough

6 questions you should ask before donating goods overseas – Good Intentions are Not Enough

The worst in-kind donations – Good Intentions are Not Enough

Haiti: Help with money, not stuff – Global Post

Guidelines for appropriate International Disaster Donations – Center of International Disaster Information (CIDI)

Tags: 50000shoes.com, Aid, donate, in-kind donations, overseas, shoes, shoes for Africa

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 10:52 am and is filed under In-kind donations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.