Peoria Christian School Shoe Project

We want to say a big "Thank you!" to Peoria Christian School for putting shoes on the feet of many Ugandan school children. PCS held a loose change drive in January to collet money for this project. We are so thankful for the PCS teachers, administration, students, and families who participated. PCS has partnered with us on a project for the past several years and has really blessed the community of Bundibugyo.

Uganda has universal primary education for children from Primary 1 - Primary 7 (roughly equivalent 1st through 7th grade in America). Government schools are tuition free and as a result are very overcrowded. Many classrooms have 100 - 150 students with only 1 teacher. Although there is no tuition, students are required to have certain items in order to attend school. These include things like notebooks, pens, a uniform, and shoes. Children in the government schools are often from the poorest families, many of whom struggle to provide school supplies. We find kids are missing school for a lack of simple things like notebooks and pens. We decided to use the funds from PCS to purchase school shoes because they are one of the more expensive items on the list (around $7) and often prevent children from attending.

Step one in organizing this shoe giveaway was finding the right type of shoes in the market. School shoes have to be all black in color. They can be tennis shoes or dress shoes, but should not be flip flops. Eli is surveying the market to find the shoes we need.

Eli and Hailey holding a typical shoe for a boy and a girl.

The challenge was that we had enough money for 156 pairs of shoes, but Nyahuka market does not have that many school shoes available! After choosing the style we liked, we sent a shoe seller from the market to Kampala (an 8 hour drive) to fill our order. We requested three sizes (small, medium, and large) so that we would have a good selection for P1 - P7 students. She spent two days in Kampala buying the shoes and two days getting them polished. Almost all of the school shoes here are used and sent from developed countries when people no longer want them. They come in all types of colors. The final step in the process before they are ready to be used for school is having them coated with black shoe polish.

After the polishing in Kampala, the shoes then arrived to Nyahuka on a matatu (taxi van) in two huge sacks. Unfortunately, none of the shoes were matched! Hailey and Eli helped Stephanie sort through 312 shoes to locate all the matches.

It was a big job but they had success at last!

We partnered with two government schools near our home in Nyahuka, Bundibugyo district. Bundikahungu Primary School is pictured below with the Rwenzori Mountains in the background. We know teachers at both schools from our local church. They helped us to identify the children who were most in need. Many of them are orphans or come from very poor families who struggle to provide for their needs.

There was a lot of excitement when we pulled up for distribution!

We started with a time of prayer and worship and a Bible lesson. Vincent (on the right) is a teacher at the school and often leads praise and worship at our church.

The children lined up according to their class. Here are some P1 students getting ready to receive shoes. Notice their barefeet!

Stephanie (with Julia on her back) helped to organize and distribute in a classroom. We had another teammate join us too which was a big help! 

Happy students after receiving their new shoes!

Peoria Christian School students also colored tags for each pair of shoes. The tags got lost in the mail and we were not sure if we would be able to find them. The tracking number said the tags arrived in Uganda on February 10th, but after 10 weeks they had still not reached our post office in Bundibugyo. We began doing some searching, but after a week of intense looking the post office could not find the box. They finally told us it was lost and we would be unlikely to see it. We were very sad that the tags would not reach the students. Then, at the end of Marc's message at the chapel service, we received a phone call saying that the package had been found! We quickly sent a teacher on a 40 minute round-trip motorcycle ride to the post office to pick up the package. The students were very excited to receive their hand colored pictures from America!

Our second shoe distribution was for Bundimulinga Primary School. This distribution was held at our local church.

Eli and Hailey were a big help as students tried on shoes for just the right fit.

At each shoe drive Marc shared a Bible message with the children. He used R.C. Sproul's book, "The Priest with Dirty Clothes", to share the story from Zechariah 3:1-5. The focus of the story is on how our sin prevents us from standing before a holy God, but then Jesus comes to the rescue to remove our sin and to clothe us in his righteousness. The children loved the pictures and were very engaged in the story. At the end, they all said they wanted to wear the clothes of righteousness that Jesus provides. You can check out the book HERE at this Amazon link. It's a good one!

Thank you so much to Peoria Christian School for providing school shoes and an encouraging card for over 150 students in Uganda. The children were very blessed to receive this gift!