Relevant Magazine has a great story on an interesting human activist shoe business named Buy Shoes. Save Lives. Founded and based in Iraq by Americans Jeremy Courtney and Cody Fisher, BSSL funds heart surgeries for Iraqi children in need through the profits of their shoe sales.
But this ain’t no regular shoe. Their called klash (or klashi kurdi depending on how formal you are). A traditional Kurdish shoe that some estimate to have been around since 600 B.C. Each pair of klash is hand made (versus being mass produced in factories), and take at least 30 hours to make. They’re pretty sweet.
As far as the heart surgeries go, 100% of the profits go directly to funding the operations, and to date BSSL has helped 10 kids. This is outstanding considering that 1 heart surgery costs $7,000, or 140 pairs of shoes. On top of that, the surgeries are not done through just any hospital, but through an organization in
While BSSL is a business, and not a front for proselytizing, co-Founder Jeremy Courtney is quoted as saying: “each person in the organization loves Jesus more than [their] own lives…We point to Jesus every time people ask us why we’re doing this” (Relevant Magazine, January/February edition, Issue 31, by Jason Boyett, page 57).
To see more info, videos or buy a pair of klash, check out their website. You can also hit them up on facebook, or check Itunes for podcasts.