TOMS Shoes: Helping Native American Reservations

As an active supporter, follower, and consumer of TOMS shoes, I couldn't be more happier with the email I received earlier in the week.

As many of you know, TOMS shoes provides pairs of shoes for hundreds of children in developing countries all around the world. They currently are helping over 20 different countries and are continually working to expand their efforts to even more countries.

Shoes are a necessity for everyone and I think it's safe to say that we all take that for granted, like most things in our lives. In developing countries, shoes can mean so much to a child. Without shoes, these children can potentially catch diseases that are easily preventable. Without shoes, children can cut themselves and possibly hurt themselves. Lastly, most schools have rules in which a uniform is required; that includes wearing shoes. Without shoes, these children cannot attend school, preventing them from an education and holding them back from learning.

I was shocked to hear that here in the US, Native American reservations live in extreme poverty, making them one of the "poorest minority groups in the United States" (www.toms.com/blogs). I knew that some reservations lived in poverty, however I had no idea that the severity of their poverty was compared to that of a developing country.

I was overjoyed when I found out that TOMS would be helping out these Native American reservations in providing children with shoes. Living in a country as free and wonderful as we are, we do help other nations out quite frequently (in my opinion) when it comes to poverty and relief efforts. So when I found out that TOMS was planning on proving shoes for Native American children here on our own US soil, I was very pleased.

As I am learning throughout this semester, Native Americans in this country are completely overlooked and ignored. Hearing that TOMS will be taking an active role in providing something as simple as shoes to reservations makes me think that maybe, just maybe, Native Americans in this country are starting to be heard.