Mpilonhle staff member Thokozani Hlophe helping guide the truck carrying the shipping container with shoes to help ensure it does not take a tree down
One-hundred thousand pair of TOMS shoes arrived in three shipments on the 3rd to the 5th of April 2012. The shoes were donated as part of TOMS One for One Program – in which for every pair of shoes purchased, one pair is donated to a child in a developing country.
Mpilonhle Administrator Marie-Christine Ryckaertbecame expert as an import agent, having to deal with all of the complexities of clearing the 100,000 pairs of shoe through Durban Harbor – the busiest in Africa, and not always the most efficient.
Mpilonhle Administrator Marie-Christine Ryckaert talking to delivery staff (the man with the pole is holding up a telephone line)
The big job was then unloading all of the shoes into safe storage. Mpilonhle staff, along with students from schools that Mpilonhle works with, pitched in to unload the containers.
Container filled with shoes
Unloading from the container
Using a wheelbarrow and the traditional (especially for women) African method of carrying things on your head
Half-way there
Tractor to the rescue
The big challenge was putting them in an order that would allow easy access when the time comes to go out to schools and provide shoes to students. There were at least four different categories of shoes – adult male and female, children’s with male and female – all with a variety of similarly numbered sizes. Thus assuring that they were properly ordered was essential.
Stacking the shoes by category and size
Moving shoes to correct location
The team taking a break
