“Why has it become so easy for people to start feel-good campaigns that no one asked for”
If someone in Africa can make this claim, it poses the question: is charity to do more with satisfying our need for solidarity rather than working towards true pressing issues?
TOMS shoes marketing campaign is highly emotive, drawing on charismatic imagery of children in severe poverty, notably, bare foot. We cannot ignore the huge inequality in the world and the poverty that so many children are living in. The criticisms of projects like TOMS shoes are not to say we should not help, but to say even more that help is required in areas that it is really needed in sustainable and sincere ways.
TOMS claims that for every pair of shoes you buy, they will give one pair away. They provide a very though provoking campaign and videos to demonstrate the help that them and partner organisations are having around the world; it is easy to settle on appreciating the work they do and feel solidarity with the cause. I’m sure their aims are well intended and sincere and do help people get shoes. However, there are subtle problems behind the second-hand clothing industry and the donation industry that outweigh these positive impacts for people, and alternative measures could mean development for all. These charismatic images do not tell the whole story. Take a look at this video to see the ways TOMS is marketing their campaign.
On the flip side, shoes are donated to places where they are not needed every year. Every country have shoes available locally.
“There are thousands of things this village needs, and nowhere on the list are T- Shirts and Shoes.”
You may ask, what about the people that can’t afford the shoes? Well the problem is, is that they are in a cycle of underdevelopment, and donating shoes is fuelling the issue rather than solving it at its source. By solving the issues, domestic markets will thrive, and everybody will be able to buy shoes. Used clothes imports in Africa actually caused 50% of the increase in unemployment between 1981 and 2000. In fact, handing out free goods actually out competes local markets meaning the domestic economy fails to grow, and instead becomes ever more dependent on charity. By stopping donations, vendors have a chance at selling with a booming demand, and money will be circulating their domestic economy.
“What we want are respectable jobs, work that allows us to live as normal human beings”
By focusing on the issues developing countries really need attention on, such as help building a domestic market, instead of clogging it with our unwanted goods, we can truly begin to dig people out of the poverty system where they can become self-reliant. Ideas of charity, solidarity and development need to be deconstructed to encompass these new narratives.
What can you do to help?
- Listen to them! Read and educate on stories from developing countries
- Help change the story! Deconstruct assumptions and the narrative that is so easy to fall into and believe, you can act in solidarity but do it in the right way.
- Create business! Support local business and shop locally
- Help Locally! If you need something tangible, get involved in your local area.