Take off your shoes to walk in support of children and adults living in dire conditions.
Imagine walking around barefoot, leaving the soles of your feet vulnerable to cuts and infection. Imagine baring your feet in the bitter cold, or scalding them on the scorching ground in the heat of summer. This is the reality of life for many underprivileged children living in less developed regions of the world.
Through a community initiative organized by Habitat for Humanity Singapore, the organization hopes to raise awareness about the impact of a simple pair of shoes on a child’s life by involving individuals to participate in a walk—barefoot.
Come June 5, on a Saturday, the Habitat-Barclays Bare Your Sole walk will be held over 5km at the East Coast Park.
Beyond spreading awareness regarding the underprivileged living in dire conditions, HFHS also hopes to raise funds for the elderly and disadvantaged in Singapore. Other community portfolios of HFHS include building projects in disaster stricken regions around the world.
Bare Your Sole acts as a timely reminder to the public that there are children around the world walking around barefoot, an issue that often gets overlooked among other social problems such as shelter and hunger.
First initiated in 2009 by Singapore Management University student Benjamin Loh, in collaboration with HFHS, the event took off with participants walking barefoot for some distance as a show of empathy for children living in poverty in Third World countries, who usually have to go about without any footwear.
Proceeds of the annual fundraiser will go toward sustaining Operation Homeworks, an ongoing local project started by HFHS to improve the living conditions of the elderly and handicapped living in one-room HDB flats. Operation Homeworks aims to improve home safety through the clearing of clutter and providing proper storage as well as the improvement of home sanitation to reduce the incidences of illness among senior citizens living on their own.
In addition, the funds raised from the walk will also support building projects in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Since its inception in 2004, HFHS has mobilized various teams of volunteers for building projects in less developed nations, as well as aided in rebuilding work in areas struck by calamities by providing funds and expertise.
|
|
| PHOTOS COURTESY OF HABITAT FOR HUMANITY SINGAPORE |
Bare Your Sole aims to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity Singapore’s work as well as raise awareness of the plight of impoverished children by engaging them in a 5km barefoot walk.
The Asia Pacific region is home to 60 percent of the world’s slum dwellers. Some 554 million of these people live in slums and informal housing, lacking access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Many of the children living in such poor areas typically work in the streets, deprived of proper footwear. A portion of these street children do not wear footwear and are exposed to dangers of being cut by glass or infected with diseases when pricked by used injection syringes.
Your support of Bare Your Sole will help Habitat for Humanity Singapore in her strategic long-term housing projects in the Asia Pacific region focused on building houses and improving the lives of the poor.
Habitat-Barclays Bare Your Sole 2010 is open to the public, so gather a group of your friends or family members to participate in this charitable cause. Students may make a donation of S$10, while adults have the option of donating S$25, S$35, S$45 or an amount of their choice. Children under the age of 7 get to walk for free.
Registration for the event is still open and available online at www.bareyoursole.org.sg
Bare Your Sole 2010
June 5, 2010
Angsana Green, East Coast Park
Flag-off time is at 8 a.m.
Food, entertainment and games will run from 7 a.m. till 3 p.m.
