Special-edition, Congolese-inspired TOMS Shoes
We're teaming up with Giving Partner Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI), an advocacy and grant-making organization founded by Ben Affleck, on two Congolese-inspired designs with an additional give. Read More >>
TOMS x charity: water - An Eyewer collaboration
TOMS and charity: water, an organization founded in 2006 (like TOMS!) that’s dedicated to to helping bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations, join forces for the first-ever TOMS Eyewear collab! Read More >>
Giving TOMS Shoes in the DRC
Founded by Ben Affleck in 2010, ECI is an advocacy and grant-making organization that works with and for the people of DRC, the third most populous country in Africa, and one that struggled under a cycle of violence for nearly 20 years – particularly in the east. Read More >>
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Profiles in One for One: Carmen Rosa receives her first pair of TOMS Shoes
Name: Carmen Rosa
Age: 7
Location: Junin, Peru
Giving Partner: Buckner International
Carmen Rosa, 7, is a bubbly, soccer-loving little girl in Junin, Peru. When she received her first pair of new TOMS Shoes from TOMS Giving Partner Buckner International, she was eagerly chatting away about showing them to her peers.
“I will show them to [my friends] Erika and Rosa,” Carmen Rosa declared with a smile. “I’m happy because now I can go to school and have the same shoes color as most of the kids.”
Carmen Rosa lives with her family in Junin, an impoverished, rural Peruvian community with few roads. The staff at Buckner Peru tells us that most people — including Carmen’s family — live in small, dilapidated homes with farm land to breed small animals, like chickens and guinea pigs. The nearest school to where Carmen lives is a few miles outside of town, a difficult trek for children to have to take on each day. After school, children help their families raise their animals. However, without proper hygiene education, children often end up sick with parasites like hookworm, and thus, not in school regularly.
Erick, on staff at Buckner, shares, “Because children are not used to wearing [shoes], they do not know how useful they are in protecting against infections, fungus and other diseases.”
Buckner International works in communities like Carmen Rosa’s to help educate its residents about health and hygiene, and to teach good health practices like hand-washing and wearing shoes. It is through these health campaigns that Buckner incorporates TOMS shoe distributions in Peru.
Just another reason we are proud to partner with organizations like Buckner International, where we can see TOMS Shoes create a lasting impact on a community’s health and education…One for One.
