A DAY WITHOUT SHOES : Experiencing a Day (or hours) without shoes

San Tayo? One Day Without Shoes
When : April 10, 2012
Time : 3PM
Happens : Yearly, but you can visit their site for other events
Where : Greenbelt Park
Website : http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/TOMSphilippines

Hot...Humid...and Grateful

This is what me and a few hundreds more felt as we walked barefoot for a few hours in Greenbelt park (and around Greenbelt, which does not happen very often). The experience was something different. As you leave your comfy shoes or sandals and start to step on the pavement, you think "hey, its not so bad!". After a few minutes, you do realize, understand and appreciate the comfort of our footwear. After the event (a good 2 hours or so), my feet felt as if I had a foot spa. I did it for 2 hours. Just imagine how it felt for kids (and adults alike) who had to do this 24 hours in a day, 7 days a week?

Around the Greenbelt park are various literature as to how important footwear are. Health, for simple reasons, the risks of injury, disease and soil-transmitted infections. Education, as schools require children to wear shoes. Opportunity as children who are healthy are more likely to be more successful students.

The display also featured "the path without shoes", which allows you to experience in a small scale what other people experience.

This does not stop with the awareness campaign, someone has to take action. One day without shoes and TOMS Philippines has done something to address this current predicament. To help out, any shoes bought from TOMS would mean giving another pair of shoes to someone in need (now that's nice!).