The Footwear Project
Lack of adequate footwear is more than a simple inconvenience or lack of comfort. It is estimated that two billion people worldwide are currently plagued with parasitic diseases that could be prevented by wearing proper footwear.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that there are many hazards associated with going barefoot in contaminated sand, soil and dirty water. In many developing countries where stagnant water is a problem, these diseases are almost a condition of life. Parasites breed in such water, with females releasing 3,000 to 200,000 eggs per day depending on their type. Children sometimes swim in parasite-infested waters, and in the absence of suitable drinking water, people may be forced to drink it and use it for cooking purposes. Amongst the poorest of the poor, parasitic infection is a vicious cycle.
Once parasites enter the body, they often perforate the intestines, circulatory system, lungs, liver and other organs, and cause physical trauma. They can lump together in balls, and travel into and erode or block the brain, heart and lungs. On occasion, these lumps have been mistaken for cancerous tumors. Parasites also give off metabolic waste products that poison the body. Left untreated, the infections they cause can result in the loss of limbs, chronic illness and even death.
Parasitic infections often prevent adults from being able to work and children from being able to attend school. The relationships between illness, access to education, and poverty have been well-documented by organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
In the year 2012, we at Ram Charan, had identified a project that was of interest to us, to support children with footwear, as bare feet are the easiest source of spreading communicable diseases & children who do not have access to proper footwear, tend to pick up infections faster. We are in touch with manufacturers, though our business & companies such as Paragon etc., have been generously supporting the cause. Till date we have managed to send out footwear for school kids in Chennai & various parts of Tamil Nadu. In early 2013, we tied up with Round Table India, service organisations spread across India & have identified 300 schools, spread across India, reaching out to such under privileged kids, with 124, 000 kids enrolled in them. We are targeting support of 30, 000 kids this year, in the age group of 5 to 9 & are looking for usable footwear, for them.
In the attached documents, you will see an introduction to Round Table India & a list of the schools that we would like to support. We can offer:
1. Proper channels of distribution &mapping of the footwear donated – every hand out to a child through their educational institution would be mapped & acknowledged.
2. Brand ambassadors title to the supporting sponsor / donor & reach to members of Round Table across India – generally these are between the age group of 30 to 40 & across various income segments.
3. Feedback & certification for this activity, which can be reported under CSR.
4. The value of the donation & the hand out will be acknowledged by a chartered accountants certification.
AjitK.Palicha foundation is named after the founder of Ram Charan Co P Ltd., based in Chennai with operations in the UK, India & Singapore. We are a trade & distribution organisation & the foundation has been set up to support the CSR activities off the firm. Our areas of focus are:
1. Supporting education
2. Supporting medical aid to locations which do not have direct access to medical support, close to where our offices are located
3. Support under privileged children.
You could read more about us on http://www.ramcharan.org/at_ramcharan.html
