Shoes that make kids smile and save the environment

Greensole, a company which is refurbishing old shoes in an environment-friendly manner and donating them to village kids.

Have you ever asked yourselves, what happens to the shoes that you throw away? Ever imagined that instead of just throwing them, if you had given it away to the right people, you would not have only helped those who can't afford shoes but also helped save the environment?

The chance is that the answers to these questions, in most cases, would be a resounding no. But it would be surprising to know that something like this can be achieved by just taking care of who you give your old shoes to.

Shriyans Bhandari and Ramesh Dhami, two professional athletes, are the guys who can help you and your old shoes to bring a smile on kids faces and but also help protect the environment.

The duo, who started Greensole, the company which refurbishes old shoes and designs them into fashionable and trendy footwear for needy school kids.

It is done in a way which is not only environment- friendly, but also makes them easily affordable for those who can't buy trendy shoes normally.

They started their project in 2013, but now have more than 17 corporate partners to support their company and have already received recognition and praise from leaders such as Ratan Tata and Barack Obama.

The first step to their work starts with corporates and individuals donating their discarded shoes to their organisation, which works on them and turns them into almost new like footwears which are donated to underprivileged kids.

They also collect old shoes from across the country through drop boxes and some other collaboration from schools and colleges.

After they get them, there work on the shoes starts with washing, cleaning and separating them from the ones which can be used without renewing.

And they take extra care to avoid melting the shoes, which is the common method adopted by other shoe manufacturers but is hazardous to the environment.

Till now, they have donated several thousand shoes to village kids and have helped conserve the environment.

It is not very difficult to imagine how many kids can be helped if a small percentage of the nearly 300 million pairs, out of the 20 billion shoes produced, that are thrown away each year make to a company like Greensole.

OneIndia News