2010 Argentina TOMS Shoe Drop

Written by on December 23, 2010 in Health, South America - 8 Comments

After missing the fifth largest blizzard in Twin Cities’ recorded history by a day (a 17.1-inch, airport-closing snowstorm), I arrived in Iguazu, Argentina through Buenos Aires on Sunday, December 12. The TOMS crew and I set up our base camp at an eco-lodge in the heart of the Misiones Province’s Atlantic rainforest — one of the last strongholds of sub-tropical reserves in Argentina — and laid out our plans for the 2010 December Argentina TOMS Shoe Drop.

In total, we were able to give shoes five different times over a period of three days. Two drops were at indigenous Guaraní villages and three were at partner nonprofits (e.g. a church, school and homeless shelter/food shelf). Each shoe drop was comprised of:

  1. Transport (ranging from 30 minutes to 3.5 hours)
  2. Organization (managing our 15-person team and over 50 boxes of shoes)
  3. Conversation (learning and talking in Spanish as much as possible)
  4. Giving (helping fit shoes on the smallest kids first; mothers also got a pair)
  5. Play (futbol, frisbee, Argentinian “Ring Around the Rosy,” and candies ended each drop)

Drumming up smiles from our new-found friends was never hard to do. Many kids were shy, but many were also excited, loving and happy. The older sisters, brothers and mothers were always nearby to help send us the youngest, most needy kids first.

One of my most memorable moments includes a chiqutita grandmother who kissed both my cheeks while passionately thanking me in Spanish. “Gracias, muchas gracias!” She said repeatedly with a smile that seemed to span her entire face.

I also can’t forget the emergency trip we took with a young Guaraní girl who had punctured her foot on an old board with a rusted nail through it protruding at a 90-degree angle. She had been playing in a patch of long grass, shoeless. Our overloaded bus of shoe droppers packed in her and her father and drove the fifteen-to-twenty minutes to the nearest hospital.

I know I can’t tell the whole story without photographs, so that’s how I’ll finish it. Below are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Shoe sizes stacked approximately 22-boxes long, two high and three deep.

A young Guaraní child with a bright new pair of TOMS.

Me helping fit shoes on a Guaraní boy.

Danyelle helping a young girl into her new TOMS.

A game of futbol post-shoe drop at a Guaraní village.

New friends made at a Guaraní village.

One of my favorite photos.

Tristan

Tristan is a SocialEarth cofounder, freelance writer, community builder and solution journalist who covers creativity, social innovation and technology. He has worked with Ashoka and Best Buy promoting social entrepreneurship and responsibility.

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  • Bhupi

    Tristan – Pat on the back for this accomplishment.You guys always inspire me with your unabated zeal and desire to participate in such nobel activities which means so much in the world today. I am inspired to become part of this activity some day. World needs more people like you!

  • Naiomi

    Tristan- these are amazing; so inspired by TOMs and such an awesome experience for you!

  • Mario Raimondi

    I have to say as an argentinean and also as a social committed person this is one of the most ridicolous, selfish and counterproductive actions Ive ever seen. TOMS is only making marketing from the needs of people living in poverty and that is something we should all stop. These actions are not improving any life of any kid in Argentina, is not giving work to the local people (shoes produced in China), there is no follow up action, the quality is not for the context and most important of all: this is not empowering or bringing development opportunities to the empoverished people.
    Its not nice at all to see how people are not looking beyond the very well told story coming from TOMS and have a little critical thinking.

    http://www.marioraimondi.com/en/2009/09/23/caso-toms-shoes-%c2%bfemprendimiento-social-u-oportunidad-de-negocio/

  • http://www.twitter.com/writerpollock Tristan

    Mario:

    I’d encourage you to read the TOMS Giving Report (http://www.toms.com/giving-report) and learn more about why TOMS was started (Google Blake Mycoskie). Shoes given in Argentina are usually made in Argentina and TOMS repeat-gives aprox. every 6 months-1 year in the same places. I understand your reservations about TOMS being a for-profit company. There are always more ways to help and no one organization can address every issue. However, I believe self-sustaining people-focused businesses like this are changing the way for-profit companies work — whether it is shoes, medicine, water, education or food.

    Another interesting initiative that I think you should look up is the Ashoka idea of a Hybrid Value Chain (http://fec.ashoka.org/content/hybrid-value-chain-framework).

    -Tristan

  • Jorn Wemmenhove

    Hi Tristan, great we are in contact now. Since I know Mario – and his great work in Argentina – very well, I can assure you it is not about the fact TOMS is a for-profit company. Actually we are actively supporting companies to have social responsibility at the core of the business model. I don’t want to judge the intentions of TOMS, but if they really want to help the poor in Argentina they would have taken the time to investigate this better. For example by talking to local ngo’s or Ashoka fellows if you want. Now they ‘drop’ their product – which don’t last long in a villa or shantytown – and leave. TOMS can always contact us for some serious ideas with real social value (www.eldesafio.org).

    But the part that really hurts (and I am not overdramatizing it) is that TOMS uses the one-for-one model as a marketing tool. Or better, they use the poverty of other to enrich themselves. The additional marketing value of the faces of poor kids, and flag of Argentina in their logo, is much higher than the cost price of a pair of alpargatas. THAT is their model, it is not about doing a business with values. If their intentions are good and their one-for-one model is just a badly chosen model, they can proof this by taking out all the references to poverty from their website and communication. Doing good does not have to be communicated if you really have good intentions.

    To make a serious change in Argentina – and probably any developing country – you need the help of companies. But not in the way TOMS does it. And I am really surprised that this for-profit company with its bad social model, and obviously great but unethical marketing, is seen as something innovative and good. If we are lowering our standards that much, it’s something to worry about.

  • Mario Raimondi

    Tristan

    I’ve read the report. Did you noticed that there is no argentinean testimony and no reference to the ‘local NGOs’ that TOMS is claiming to work with?

    This is a model in where an external party arrived to another country, saw a need and decided he could provide the solution, without talking to any locals or thinking about development and sustainability. The trick of any social serious work is actually to empower communities, to make them part of the solution, to give them tools to develop. TOMS, by giving shoes once a year, is hardly doing that. Meantime, as Jorn explained, they enrich themselves big time in a very questionable and unethical way.

    Im shocked by the lack of critical thinking to be honest sometimes, the report itself is a clear example of nice designed marketing but empty of content. Fortunatelly many NGO and consumers are noticing the real intentions of TOMS behind this.

    Cheers,

    Mario

    PS: Thanks for the Ashoka link, I know it for long now and with all my respect, I prefer to listen, read and hear the local people from each country talking about their ideas.

  • http://www.twitter.com/writerpollock Tristan

    I think you’re spot-on with this comment: “The trick of any social serious work is actually to empower communities,
    to make them part of the solution, to give them tools to develop.”

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