Charity, Shoes for Planet Earth, is collecting unwanted children’s shoes to help people in Indigenous communities.
“Many of our shoes go to Indigenous communities all over Australia, including sporting groups, giving them the possibility to change their lives through sport, whether it be walking, running, footy or any other activity – and we have shoes for all ages,” says Viv Kartsounis, CEO of Shoes for Planet Earth.
The charity has delivered over 26,000 pairs of shoes and the CEO says it putting “smiles on people’s feet”.
Pre-schools are now also accepting donations in a range of locations until the end of June – to add to the collection for larger size shoes.
Some of the children's shoes donated at a Sydney pre-school. Image supplied.
"They don’t have many children’s shoes and they always get adult donations, so I thought kids need them just as much," said Mike Searson from Growfit.
"I’ve linked up all my pre-schools together with volunteers to collect the shoes from all those centres – and a gold coin donation," he said.
Halfway through the term, Mr Searson had "an overwhelming response" and had filled his own Jeep Wrangler with donated shoes.
"They’ve been sending them [the shoes] to Indigenous communities in the northern territory and they are in the process of filling up a shipping container to send to Africa.
"The beautiful thing is, for every pair of adults shoes we can actually fit in the same box at least one pair of children’s shoes as well – inside the adult’s shoes. There’s all this space they need to fill with kids shoes," he said.