Shoemaker’s Dream

I am a middle aged, white South African woman, living in a small town on the West Coast. Things have been going from bad to worse in our country and it's becoming more and more difficult to find sustainable work. I did my TEFL course to teach English overseas. I sold everything I had, including my car, to buy a ticket to Vietnam. After a short while in Vung Tau, in the south of Vietnam, my health was deteriorating fast because of the high humidity. I have over active sweat glands and was permanently dehydrated which caused my kidneys to work overtime. The pain was excruciating. I tried to go to my sister in Australia because I didn't want to come back to a war filled country, alas, my Visa was denied. Since my return I have been trying to set up WiFi so that I can teach online, and then Loadshedding started again (our electricity is shut down for hours at a time, sometimes up to three times a day) which made it impossible to set times for teaching, since the times varies.

After hours of meditation I realised that it is time to realise a dream I have had since a young age. I want to make hand made leather shoes. I used to make leather handbags (photo's attached) and I called my business Boho T, so I have a leather distributor. Now I'm in search of a sole manufacturer, and I will find one. I have already researched the tools I'll be needing, since they are a bit different to the tools needed to make handbags (wich I also don't have anymore, since I donated them before leaving for Vietnam). All I have left is the passion and will to work hard to make this business work, but not the funds. Will you please help me make people's feet happy with comfortable and designer leather shoes? Because I would love to make them.

I made the deadline for end of March, because I'll have a roof over my head till then.

Thank you for reading my story and for your consideration.