Put Foot Foundation

The Put Foot Foundation is a volunteer based, South African Public Beneficiary Organization (PBO) and Not-for-Profit Organization (NPO) born out of the need to tackle the daily plight and indignity of children with no shoes. It operates across the whole of South Africa and into neighbouring countries, often focusing on the less privileged and rural areas overlooked by large charities.

The Foundation was founded in 2011 by three South Africans: Daryn Hillhouse, Mike Sharman, and Bob Skinstad, who had traveled extensively through Southern Africa on road trips together and seen firsthand the need for shoes for children in poor rural areas.
They realized that for many school children, shoes are symbolic of pride and give them confidence knowing that they can walk to school in comfort, as opposed to barefoot. Shoes are also a vital protective barrier between children’s tiny soles and Africa’s rough and unforgiving terrain.

Their vision was to gift millions of children in Southern Africa, that have never owned a pair of shoes, with their first-ever quality brand new pair, and thus restore HOPE, PRIDE, and DIGNITY in each of the area’s neediest learners.