Last October, 356 students at Kitambaasye Primary School in Thika, Kenya received pairs of The Shoe That Grows distributed through our partner G-BiACK. This February, our team returned to visit the school and check in on the kids, and what they found was encouraging.

The shoes were still going strong.

Teachers eagerly shared what a difference the shoes had made, both inside and outside the classroom. Milka, a Grade 2 teacher, put it simply: "They walk in with a beat-up wet shoe, and they can come to school and have a good shoe for class. You find that they are not stressed. There is no wasting time. Their education improved because they can switch to learning right away."

Lucy, a Grade 3 teacher, echoed that sentiment. When every child arrives wearing the same shoes, something shifts. "When they all have the same shoes, they come and are very relaxed. They are very happy with these shoes."

That sense of ease carries into the warmer months too. During the hot, sunny seasons, teachers noted that children especially love their shoes because they are light and open, and many students actually prefer them over other pairs they own. In the Grade 5 class, more than half of the students wear their shoes to school every day. When asked why some children don't wear them as often, the answer was telling: they want to take care of them. 

What consistently stands out to teachers, though, is the effect the shoes have had on students' confidence. Gertrude, a Grade 6 teacher with 20 years in the classroom, explained it best: "A child is a child. If a child sees someone with a different pair of shoes, sometimes the child can think the other shoes are better. When they all have the same shoe, it helps their self-confidence."

And because The Shoe That Grows adjusts as children grow, the impact doesn't stop after one year. As Milka noted, "As the shoe grows with the child who is becoming a bigger person, the shoe provides them service for multiple years," a longer lasting solution for kids whose feet, and futures, are still growing.

The love for these shoes extends beyond the classroom too. Three students shared that they pass their shoes along to siblings at home, and one child was spotted wearing a pair handed down from a sibling in Grade 7 at the same school. It's a small detail that speaks to just how much these shoes mean to families, and how far a single pair can go.

Give to support a distribution of The Shoe That Grows in Kenya.