Kent student brings gifts to Caribbean
Olivia Sliman, junior electronic media production major, held a photo of the shoes she recently collected and donated for needy children in Jamaica on Sunday, Jan 8. Sliman began her collection last winter, and by spring she had 1,011 pairs of shoes to donate through Soles4Souls. Photo by Jenna Watson.
January 12, 2012
A love for Jamaica and reggae brought Olivia Sliman and her family to the Caribbean nation last December. The culture she experienced there changed her outlook on life.
Sliman said her family passed several impoverished areas of the country while driving to the Bob Marley house in Nine Mile.
“There were all these kids running around playing soccer without shoes or shirts, some were just in their underwear,” Sliman said. “I’m really into sports and these kids were phenomenal soccer players. I couldn’t believe they didn’t have shoes.”
When Sliman arrived home from her trip she decided she wanted to donate shoes to Jamaican children. Sliman said she contacted a tour guide she met in Jamaica who agreed to distribute shoes collected for the children.
“We started collecting them before we knew what to do with them,” Sliman said. At first I wanted to get 40 shoes, and then we had 600.”
By April, Sliman had collected more than 1,000 shoes of all sizes, ranging from sneakers to high heels. Sliman donated any shoes that were more suitable for cold climates to a local women’s shelter. To avoid a charge of more than $1,000 at the post office, Sliman contacted “Soles4Souls,” a Nashville-based charity organization that collects shoes and ships them around the world.
With the help of Soles4Souls, Sliman successfully donated the shoes to impoverished nations. Although she requested they be sent to Jamaica, she received no guarantee as to where the shoes were sent. Sliman said the organization places donated items where they are most needed and many of the shoes she collected were sent to Japan after an April 2011 tsunami.
Souls4Souls charged Sliman $600 to pick up her shoe donations.
Information from Soles4Souls.org
- Over 300 million children world-wide are without shoes.
- Shoes are a requirement for school in many developing countries, making many children unable to attend
- 1.4 billion people world-wide are affected by parasitic diseases that can be prevented with shoes.
“They suggested you ask each person for $1 with their shoe donation, but I had already done everything backwards by then,” Sliman said. “The $600 was my family’s donation.”
Despite the unforeseen charges, Sliman said she was amazed by how many people were willing to help her with the project.
“There are so many good people around,” Sliman said. “I’ve found that everyone wants to help, they just need a little spark of initiative.”
Sliman plans to accept donations for a new project “Sharing Shirts” this semester. Sliman said she thinks this project may be even more successful than “Sharing Shoes” because people tend to own more clothing.
Sliman said she started a Facebook page for the project titled “Sharing Shoes.”
“I plan to get the word out through Facebook and word of mouth,” Sliman said.
Sliman said she believes most people just need encouragement to give to charity.
“I challenge everyone to just donate what they don’t want anymore,” Sliman said.” “I don’t want their money, just things they no longer need that can change someone else’s life.”
How to Donate: Olivia Sliman can be contacted at [email protected]. Any person interested in donating can have clothes picked up for them at their convenience.
Contact Drew Parker at [email protected].
