The 50,000 pairs challenge
» Making a Difference

See what your $5 can do!

  • Roberto

    Roberto is 10 and lives with his uncle’s family in the City Dump outside Tegucigalpa. Each day he gets up at dawn and sorts through the trash looking for items that he can clean up and sell, or for suitable things to eat. “This is my first pair of real cowboy boots,” he repeatedly said.

  • Rafael

    Rafael is 3 and has never owned a pair of shoes, just like his 5 brothers and sisters. His mother, who lives alone with the children outside the Tegucigalpa City Dump, said she is happy her children will be able to walk to school three miles down the dirt road more safely. (Honduras has a high prevalence rate of Hookworm infection, and many children like Rafael are at direct risk for infection.)

  • Maria

    Maria is 5 and lives in Reynosa, Mexico. She is delighted with her new pair of shoes but didn’t wan to take them out of the box. . “I just want to look at them right now,” she said, “These are not the kind of shoes you should get dirty.”

  • Julio

    Julio is a 6 year-old Guatemalan boy who didn’t stop laughing after receiving his new pair of running shoes. “Now I will be the fastest runner at school,” he said. Julio lives outside southwestern city of Quetzaltenango (also called Xela), with his 3 brothers and sisters, and said he is going to school to become a teacher and a soccer (fútbol) coach.

  • Carol

    Carol lives in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. She came to the Soles4Souls distribution center following Hurricane Katrina and picked up shoes for her entire family. “You have no idea how amazing this gift is,” she said. “We can’t rebuild our community wearing and you are helping folks in need during the worst of times...I can’t thank you enough. And I know the rest of the people feel the same way. God bless you!”

  • Angel

    Angel is a bright-eyed 18 month-old boy living in Reynosa, Mexico. He was still learning to walk in his new pair of boots, and his parents were delighted to learn that Soles4Souls will return each year with shoes for the kids. Soles4Souls Founder Wayne Elsey (seen here) said that “Soles4Souls is committed to all the kids who receive shoes from us, because as they grow out of the shoes we need to be there again.”

  • Isabel

    Isabel is a 7 year-old Honduran girl, and is the oldest of 4 children. She and her family live on the outskirts of the Capital City, Tegucigalpa, where she hopes to be able to become a nurse so that she “can help people when they are sick.”

  • Ana

    Ana is a second grader who lives with her family in the South Bronx, New York (America’s lowest income district) She came with 450 classmates to a Soles4Souls/ World Vision event and left with a new pair of shoes and a wide grin. “Now I’m ready to go back to school!”