Almost a year ago, I met Sarah Martha, executive director of Dhamira Moja, in person for the first time. I assumed she would be a good person because of her name, and I can confirm, based on a small sample size, that Sarahs are good people. 

Last year we were looking for additional partners. People who are on the ground, actively working in communities, supporting kids and families in ways that make a long-term impact on their lives. Based on what I knew about Sarah Martha and her organization, I had a feeling we might work well together.

Upon arriving in Busia County, I contacted Sarah Martha. I knew it would be a long shot, but I was hoping for a way that she could see the shoes, meet us, watch a distribution happen in real time before we talked about a new partnership. She didn't have to drive out to meet me. But she did anyway. Immediately. Showed up all smiles, big dynamic energy, the kind of person who makes you feel like you've known her for ten years within about ten minutes. We hit it off immediately and started talking about what she was already doing in her communities and our vision of supporting her long-term work.

Organizations that believe in education as a way to break the cycle of poverty are exactly who we are looking for. However, working with organizations that serve kids through schools also means we are subject to school calendars and breaks. In the latter part of the year in Kenya, that means end-of-year testing and then summer break. But Sarah Martha wasn’t interested in waiting for a new year to kick off distributions for the schools she works with. She knew the need and was determined to find a way to get the kids shoes as soon as possible. I mentioned the possibility of doing distributions in November, in the middle of their summer break. She looked at me and said, more or less, we’ll be ready as soon as you are. 

Just a few short months later, I flew back to Kenya in November to be part of her first distributions, because she'd actually done it. She'd contacted the schools. She'd rallied the communities during their summer breaks. In a very impressive way, she had even secured her own storage space so we could start sending shipments of shoes for her to reach the thousands of kids who were excited to receive their first pair.

Since then, it's been nine straight months of her team running distributions. Dozens of volunteers, thousands of pairs of The Shoe That Grows, hundreds of surveys, sometimes multiple schools in a single day, in an extremely well-organized operation.

Dhamira Moja is exactly the kind of partner I want to talk about. Because here's the thing about our industry that nobody likes to say out loud: it is very easy to be the organization that flies in, hands out a truckload of product, takes the photo and leaves. It feels great. It photographs beautifully. It solves approximately nothing.

Organizations like Dhamira Moja are already doing the actual work. They know which families are struggling and why. They know which kid hasn't been in class in days and what's keeping her home. They're in these communities every day, long after we've gone back to Idaho, dealing with the hundred other things a family needs besides footwear. What we can do is remove one barrier from that very long list. The Shoe That Grows expands with a kid's foot so a family doesn't have to choose between yet another pair of shoes and one of the many other needs. By partnering with organizations like Dhamira Moja, we can participate in the actual sustained work of lifting a community, carried out by the people who live there and show up for it every single day.

Dhamira Moja is one of 15 partners who have carried out surveys and distributed over 50,000 pairs of The Shoe That Grows in the first half of this year. They know the schools they work with, and surveys from both students and teachers reflect the need for The Shoe in their community. As they work to meet the many needs of the families in their communities, we are thrilled to come alongside and meet one big need through one tangible product.

That's the partnership model we're chasing. Not "we were here, we helped, we left," but "we believe in education, and we’re proud to support the organizations helping to make educational opportunities a reality.” It's better than a viral distribution video. And it’s also work I actually believe in.

June Impact Dashboard