Press Release

New Shoes for Gaza Children

Gaza City | Years of blockade and economic hardships in Gaza has meant that many families are unable to afford proper shoes and children are walking to school barefoot or in sandals and other flimsy shoes. Anera is bringing some joy to many youngsters in Gaza with the delivery of a new pair of shoes.

Thanks to TOMS Shoes, Anera is distributing a pair of new shoes to thousands of children at more than a hundred preschools across Gaza from the south to the north, including Rafah, Khan Younis, Gaza City and Beit Lahia. The shoe distribution complements Anera’s early childhood development programs in Gaza, which include preschool repairs, reading programs and teacher training.

TOMS is a U.S.-based company committed to providing a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased. One for One®.This is the second year that Anera has distributed TOMS Shoes in Gaza.

Anera will deliver a shipment of TOMS Shoes to preschoolers in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon later in the year. The new shoes will complement Anera’s work in the refugee camps, including vocational education and sports programs for older youngsters, as well as home gardens to help provide nutritious meals for refugee families and the distribution of vital medicines to low-cost clinics that serve the camps and neighboring communities.

About Anera

For more than 45 years, Anera has been a leading provider of development, health, education and employment programs to Palestinian communities and impoverished families throughout the Middle East. In FY 2012, the relief and development agency delivered more than $40 million of programs to the people of the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon and Jordan.

About TOMS Shoes:

In 2006, American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in a village in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One®. Since then, TOMS has evolved from a shoe company to the One for One® company, and is now addressing an entirely new need around the world in addition to shoes through eyewear.