Visiting Haiti has been a life-changing experience for Lisa Labreche.
The footwear specialist has visited the Caribbean country, considered the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, several times as an ambassador of Soles4Souls Canada program.
Labreche is a certified pedorthist at the BioPed Footwear Clinic at the Four Corners in the city's South End. She understands the difference fitted footwear designed to address foot or knee pain can make in someone's life.
And she has seen firsthand how a pair of shoes can actually change lives by giving people in poor countries a chance to overcome poverty.
The Soles4Souls program, adopted by BioPed Footwear and Orthotics, a national franchise, distributes new shoes to children in developing nations.
Her BioPed colleagues, Kyla Rouleau, Robin White and Leslie Bourget, have also participated in the annual missions of mercy.
New footwear or money to purchase it are provided by corporate and community sponsors and individual donations.
"Kyla and I travelled to Haiti for the first time in 2016 and fell in love with the program. All four of us went in 2018," Lebreche said.
On their trips, the women spend a week sizing new footwear for children at schools, orphanages and community centres.
"Kids have to walk miles to school, and to go to school they have to have shoes," she said.
Providing children with shoes or sandals also reduces health risks and injuries in communities that do not have access to clean water and proper shelter.
BioPed clinics also collects used footwear from Canadians that Soles4Souls provides to women's collectives in places such as Dominican Republic, Honduras and Guatemala, as well as Haiti.
Local women sell the shoes — often footwear that has never been worn and still has tags on them — at markets to raise money for food, shelter and education.
The used shoe program has the added benefit of empowering women to start their own mini-enterprises.
Soles4Souls provides women with business and math training to ensure their success.
It is estimated that one pair of shoes pays for five meals, 20 pairs provide shelter for one year and 30 pairs pays for one year of school in these economically disadvantaged countries, which are also stressed by over-population, violent crime and natural disasters.
BioPed works with Soles4Souls to ensure its ambassadors have an opportunity to learn about the country they are visiting and to meet some of the local women who sell the footwear.
"One woman in Haiti started in a makeshift home, (two years later) we saw her progression where she built a home for her sons and nephews, and put them all through school. On the next visit, she served lunch to the BioPed group as a thank you," said Lebreche, who is making arrangements to travel to the Dominican Republic this February.
"Giving back always feels good. But to be able to see the impact you can have on a family, on a mother, on children, with a pair of used shoes. I would never have thought we could create so much change with something so simple.
"Every trip presents us with a moment where we realize how lucky we are in Canada, and how easy it is to help someone else who does not have that opportunity."
On occasion the ambassadors are able to help in other ways. For example, they collected money to purchase batteries to keep the lights on at an orphanage, said Lebreche.
Another time, they were able to find funds to purchase a wheelchair for a boy with a club foot.
BioPed Sudbury has an annual shoe drive in October to collect shoes and works with schools and other groups on their shoe collections.
The Sudbury clinic also keeps a collection bin. Running shoes, casual shoes, dress shoes, sandals and boots are accepted anytime.
Even those fancy sparkly high-heeled shoes you never wore can be donated.
Women everywhere like to have nice things, Lebreche said.
"They like dress shoes … everything sells."
It is estimated BioPed clinics in Canada have collected 600,000 pairs of used shoes since 2015.
Soles4Souls was founded in the United States in 2006 and has a Canadian division.
In addition to its work in disadvantaged counties, it partners with schools across Canada on the 4EveryKid program to distribute new athletic shoes to young people in underserved communities.
Close to home, BioPed Sudbury distributed 250 pairs of new shoes to the homeless at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vicki Gilhula is a freelance writer. Helpers is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.
