“New shoes provide hope to a child. And while hope is not necessarily measurable, it is one of the most meaningful attributes in our mission to break the cycle of poverty and disease,” explains the team from Partners In Health, a TOMS Giving Partner.



Children in Neno, Malawi receive their first pairs of TOMS shoes

Since 2007, Partners In Health has brought health, education and hope to the southern district of Neno in Malawi. They have built hospitals and health clinics throughout that region, but as they shared with us, "you can build a hospital and you can give people medicine, but if you don't address their other needs, people are not going to get better.”

Collaborating with local government and organizations, Partners In Health provides patients and their families with layers of support like food, shelter, school subsidies and health education. All of these factors help children, families and communities break the cycles of poverty and disease that have long affected districts like Neno.

Since becoming a TOMS Giving Partner in 2009, Partners In Health has distributed new shoes to children in Haiti, Malawi, Rwanda and Lesotho. For some of these children, these were the first shoes they’d ever owned or received.

The TOMS shoes not only help protect children’s feet from cuts, infection and diseases, but as the Partners In Health team tells us, “New shoes give children a sense of self, a feeling of pride, and the universal satisfaction that comes from feeling taken care of and provided for.”



“[The shoes] make me feel happy and [help me know] that everything will be OK,” beamed Alfred, a student in Neno who received his first pair of TOMS shoes.

We at TOMS are so grateful that the incredible support of our TOMS community can be extended to provide children with not only new shoes but also, through our Giving Partners, a feeling of being loved.

Thank you for supporting the One for One movement.

Want to see more? Check out this Facebook album of children receiving shoes in Malawi.