|
Events
Shop Categories
About Vienam
Related Organisations
|
About The Little Feet Company
The aim of The Little Feet Company is to improve the lives of Vietnams Orphans and underprivileged children by funding programs to improve their health, education and their wellbeing.
How did the Little Feet Company start ?
The Little Feet Company was started by Sarah Byrnes as a result of her experiences volunteering for three months in Vietnam in the summer of 2007.
Sarah Volunteered through the Global Volunteer Network and worked alongside 13 other volunteers in Da Nang, Central Vietnam in a variety of placements including:
In this time both Sarah and the other Volunteers saw the great need that these children had, for improvements their daily living conditions, medical care, education, nutrition and general wellbeing. While In Vietnam Sarah and the other volunteers did some personal fundraising. Through Sarah's efforts she was able to see how much of an improvement could be made to these children by a relatively small amount of money. They were able to start a program that employed a physio-therapist to work at all the placement the Global Volunteer Network visited to assist the disabled children and educate the orphanage staff on better caring practices for the children.
Sarah realised that although there fundraising achieved a lot it was not going to sustain the children long term. Therefore a way of raising consistent funding for the children was to create a business that not only supported the local community and artisans but also generated an income that could be directed to the underprivileged children in the Da Nang area.
After Sarah graduated univeristy in the summer of 2008, she traveled back to Vietnam and now has set up permanent residence in the central town of Hoi an , 30km from the Da Nang placements. The Little Feet Company was established in the winter of 2008 and is now operated online by Sarah in Vietnam, and her mother in the UK.
The little Feet Company also aims at delivering the beautiful handmade products of Vietnam to the western world. The Little Feet Company works directly with the artisans of Vietnam to deliver you the customers a beautiful range of fair trade gifts and handmade gifts.
Where did the name The Little Feet Company come from? The Little Feet Company got its name through Sarah’s attachment to the babies she met in the orphanages in Vietnam, in particular a beautiful 1 month old baby girl, who was the catalyst for Sarah’s long term commitment to the children of Vietnam. These beautiful babies left a big impression on Sarah and her life which is where our mantra ' Little feet big impressions' came from. Because without those little feet she would never have moved to Vietnam and set about setting up a company to benefit the children in Vietnam. We believe that you don’t have to have a big large 'footprint' to make a difference in a childs life and that every effort, donation, purchase, and ounce of love that is sent to these children will leave an impression on them as well as yourself!
How does The Little Feet Company give back The Little Feet Company gives back to Vietnam in three ways
2. By donating 30% of our profits directly to orphanages, day centres and social supporting centers in central Vietnam.
What is meant by the term Orphan?
When Sarah first arrived in Vietnam she knew she would be working with orphans and underprivileged children. However Sarah believed that children in orphanages in Vietnam were there as a result of the death of either their mother or both parents. However, this was not the case at all in fact over 80% of children in these orphanages are there as a result of there parents abandoNing them due to a wide variety of reasons including, poverty, poor health of the child, disabiilty of the child, or due to the pregnancy be a result of prostitution. The orphans that we work with in the centres may have a whole family living close by, who in some situations visit, but the parents have resigned there parental responsibilities to the child to the centre as they can't care for them. In vietnam there are currently over 1,500,000
By purchasing our fair trade gifts and handmade gifts from this website, and spreading the word to your friends and family. By volunteering with the children of Vietnam by the Global Volunteer Network - http://www.volunteer.org.nz/vietnam/. By holding a fundraising or charity event for The little Feet Company, we have an information pack that is available to help you with your event! contact Sarah at thelittlefeetboutique@yahoo.co.uk By holding a Little Feet Company Party, where you invite friend and family around to buy a selection of our products - you will receive 20% commission on every item you sell at these events: please contact Sarah at thelittlefeetboutique@yahoo.co.uk. The Little Feet Company works with the Global Volunteer Network in Da Nang and as Sarah now permantely lives in Vietnam we are able to keep a hands on up to date account of what is happening at the centres and Sarah is able to decide with the Global Volunteer Network staff, volunteers and orphanage staff where our donations would be most successfully utilized to the benefit of the children. What is Fair Trade? Fair trade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fair trade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives. |
