Viatu Shuleni “School Shoes Matter”

Viatu Shuleni is a community based charitable organization that aims to restore lost dignity of disadvantaged school going pupils by providing decent leather school shoes. Research shows that 77% of Kenyans live in rural and slum areas, where in every 10 school pupils, 9 school pupils walk to school barefoot and lack proper school uniform. In such settings school shoes and uniforms are unconsciously regarded as a luxury to the people, and as a way of survival pupils cover long kilometers to school barefoot and still brave the cold classroom floors in the pursuit of an education, it is in these regards that Viatu Shuleni aims at providing decent leather school shoes to all disadvantaged school going pupils across the country.

Objectives:

• To restore lost dignity of disadvantaged pupils by providing decent leather school shoes to all primary and secondary school pupils.
• To bolster academic performance by raising self-esteem and confidence amongst disadvantaged pupils.

How Viatu Shuleni works:

• Step 1 - The Viatu Shuleni Team visits schools and evaluates the level of need and there after informing the decision of school(s) to benefit.
• Step 2 - The team raises the resources and organizes for a specific day to conduct the viatu shuleni initiative.
• Step 3 - Our volunteer shoe cobblers selected from within the area of the beneficiary school are employed for the shoe making processes at our Viatu Shuleni Workshop.
• Step 4 -The team sets base in the beneficiary school on one specific day from morning, the occasion starts by students getting an opportunity to fit into their new pair of school shoes and there after our volunteer team engages the students in sporting and mentorship sessions.
• Step 5 -The event culminates with a tree planting session where every pupil in the school is provided with a tree seedling to plant within the school compound.
• Step 6 -Every month our volunteer tailors and cobblers visit beneficiary schools for free school shoe and uniform repair.

Goal

Our sole aim is to ensure that in the next two years no school going child attends school barefoot and lacks proper school uniform.

Goal 250,000 pair of leather school shoes