Kenya

Project Elimu

July 2023 – “Why walk when you can dance? Sal’s ballet Shoes are back on their dancing feet at Project Elimu in Nairobi, Kenya as part of their arts programme where every child is given a platform to join regardless of their ability. Project Elimu is a community-driven non-profit organisation offering after-school arts education and a safe space to children living in Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. Kibera is the largest urban slum in Africa. The average size of a shack in this area is 12ft x 12ft built with mud walls, and a corrugated tin roof with a dirt or concrete floor. These shacks often house up to 8 or more, with many sleeping on the floor. Only about 20% of Kibera has electricity. In most of Kibera there are no toilet facilities, and one latrine (hole in the ground) is shared by up to 50 shacks. Until recently Kibera had no water. The unemployment rate is 50%. Kibera has no government clinics or hospitals and the average life expectancy is 30.”

Project Elimu

April 2023 – “We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams.” Albert Einstein The first time we received a pair of donated ballet shoes in an envelope, we weren’t quite sure what to do with them. But your ballet shoes kept coming, and your tap and jazz shoes. 9 years on we now receive so many preloved dance shoes we’re able to kit out whole academies with dancing feet in need. Your preloved dance shoes, sent by individuals and dance schools, alongside a generous donation by a ballet shop that recently closed down and donated all their unsold stock of dance shoes and dance wear, have been finding their new dancing feet at Project Elimu in Kenya. A community-driven non-profit organisation championing after-school activities for children living in Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa, just outside Nairobi. Their arts program is non-competitive with an open door policy where every child is given a platform to join regardless of their ability. The children can learn how to dance, how to play musical instruments, acrobatics and participate in arts and crafts activities.”

Igoji

12 November 2022 – “We dance for laughter,
we dance for tears,
we dance for madness,
we dance for fears,
we dance for hopes,
we dance for screams,
we are the dancers,
we create the dreams’
– Albert Einstein
Your Sal’s dance Shoes have set off for Project Elimu in Kenya, a community-driven, non-profit organisation providing after-school, arts-based activities for children living in Kibera – the largest urban slum in Africa [Photographs: https://www.sebfouquet.com]”

Igoji

January 2022 – Your Sal’s school Shoes are headed back into the classroom in the village of Igoji in Kenya thanks to Eusebia Hope.

Kibera

May 2021 – It’s a Sal’s Shoes stepping out Saturday 👣 We work really hard to maintain the premise on which we were built – knowing where all your Sal’s Shoes find their new feet 📦 SW FEEBS your donated Sal’s Shoes – outgrown but not outworn – have found their new owner in Kenya 🇰🇪 Her name is Shakaina and she is 4 years old. Shakaina is currently in PP1 the first level of the Kenyan schooling system. She is the second born and the last born. She loves both art and acrobatics.

Kibera

February 2021 – Dear Edith and Izzy and Laura We wanted to let you know that your Sal’s Shoes have just found their new dancing feet in Kenya 🇰🇪 Kibera in Nairobi is the largest urban slum in Africa 🌍 and home to around 250,000 people. Housing consists of shacks with the average size around 12ft x 12ft and built with mud walls, a corrugated tin roof and a dirt or concrete floor. These shacks often house up to 8 or more people with many of them sleeping on the floor. Only about 20% of Kibera has electricity and until recently Kibera had no water. There are now two mains water pipes into Kibera. In most of Kibera there are no toilet facilities and one latrine [hole in the ground] is shared by up to 50 shacks. The first time someone sent us a pair of dance shoes we weren’t quite sure where we’d find them their new feet. And your dance shoes kept coming. And then we found Anno’s Africa and their sister organisation One Fine Day who fund and organise weekly arts clubs, including ballet lessons, at an academy in the middle of Kibera. We now send them an annual consignment of your Sal’s dance Shoes 🩰

Kibera
Kibera
Kibera

Kibera

In January 2021, thanks to Anno’s Africa your Sal’s Shoes have been finding their new feet in Kibera – the largest urban slum in Africa – in Nairobi, Kenya 🇰🇪, at the One Fine Day centre which funds and organises weekly, year round arts clubs 🎭

Kibera
Kibera

Mogra Children's Rescue Centre, Nairobi

January 2021 – We’ve been finding new feet for your preloved Crocs at Mogra Children’s Rescue Centre, a registered children’s centre in Nairobi, Kenya 🇰🇪 currently home to 409 orphaned children who would otherwise be living on the streets 👣

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Nairobi, Kibera

November 2020, 136 pairs of your ballet and jazz shoes are en route to find their new dancing feet in Kenya with Anno’s Africa 🇰🇪 at the ballet academies they run in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, and the largest urban slum in Africa.

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Primary School in Kenya

March 2020, thanks to Supporting Little Feet your Sal’s Shoes, alongside other donations, have been finding their new owners in a primary school in Kenya 🇰🇪

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