The world’s largest Ebola outbreak began in 2014 and lasted two years, hitting West Africa the hardest. Reported deaths reached over 11,000—leaving many children orphaned.
Six-year-old Memuna Dumbuya in Sierra Leone lost both of her parents during the outbreak. When no one in the community was able to take her, Mamuma’s grandmother, also in challenging circumstances, tried to fill the role.
At first, her grandmother had aspirations of getting Memuna new clothes, a pair of shoes, a mattress and putting her back in school. However, despite all her efforts, she could only save enough money to make sure they had something to eat once a day. Soon after, Memuna contracted malaria and became very sick. Unable to afford medical treatment, her grandmother, determined, gathered all the herbal medicine she could find, but Memuna was dying.
While registering children in need of assistance in Memuna’s village, Samuel Simah Kargbo, the founder of Drying Tears Children's Foundation (DTCF), heard about her condition. He went to visit her immediately and gave Memuna’s grandmother $15 so she could take her to a local clinic.
After Samuel returned home, he launched a campaign at DTCF to raise money for clothes, shoes, food, a mattress with bedding and hygienic essentials for Memuna. With access to these critical resources, she began to recover, and eventually Samuel’s team was able to help her enroll in school again.
“I was once an orphan. I have gone through what they are suffering, and as a man who loves his community, I can't sit and watch,” Samuel said. Born in Sierra Leone in 1992 Samuel’s parents passed away when he was eight years old. He worked at nearby farms in exchange for food; however, it was never enough to fill his stomach. “My playmates and I used to go and beg for food at the local orphanage when it was time for the orphans to eat,” Samuel recalled.
Intimately knowing the hardships of orphaned children, he was inspired to start Drying Tears Children's Foundation. The organization has grown to help 128 children in 12 remote villages access daily food, clothing, shoes, medical care and education.
Knowing that children grow so quickly, Samuel was looking for durable shoes that would last through a few growth cycles to replace their broken sandals. Children were wearing broken flip flops, sometimes a different shoe on each foot or even a left sandal on their right foot to protect their feet from the extreme ground temperatures and sharp objects.
After seeing a post on Facebook about The Shoe That Grows, DTCF partnered with Because international, and in September 2018, Memuna and 109 other children received a pair of The Shoe That Grows!
“The shoe campaign was wonderfully successful. The shoes are beautiful and the children like them so much. It’s so amazing to see the kids we have in school uniforms and wearing shoes,” Samuel said.
Four months after the distribution of the shoes, Samuel said, “Memuna walks about two miles to her school. She is walking long distances most of the time, so the shoes are really, really helpful to her and the other children. She likes The Shoe That Grows, and, in fact, all the other children like theirs too. Memuna wears the shoes to school, church, and other places.”
In 2019, a church in North Carolina raised enough money for 100 more pairs of The Shoe That Grows to be distributed to children sponsored by DTCF.
Samuel has also acquired a sewing machine! In a school built by members of a church in Atlanta, Georgia, Samuel plans to implement a sewing curriculum so that the children he works with can learn a trade.
Distributions like these are made possible by The Sole—join today to help fund The Shoe That Grows for kids around the world.
