News

Introduction

Hello! We are SB.Heart Station.
We collect Japanese Children’s second hand shoes and donate to children around the world.

→How to Support for English
→Our project page for Japanese
→Donation to Thailand Movie(2022)

This photo is of students’ shoes in Mae Hong Son province, Thailand

 

Mae Hong Son province is located in the western tip of northern Thailand and borders Myanmar.
It is said to be the poorest province in Thailand because its industry is agriculture and there are no major tourist spots.

In recent years, Thailand has experienced remarkable development and has joined the ranks of middle-income countries.
But, it is also known as the country with the most inequality in the world, with only 1% of the population owning 40% of the country’s wealth.

In particular, the lives of children and ethnic minorities living in mountainous areas are still hard, and many children do not have their own shoes.

They buy sports shoes when they enter junior high school, but they are never able to buy new shoes from then on until they graduate from high school.
Their shoes, which have been worn every day for several years, now look like tattered cloth.

Meanwhile, shoes that can still be worn are thrown away every day, in Japan.
If you throw shoes away, they become garbage, but if you donate them, you can help children who are living with worn-out shoes

Children choose larger shoes because they want to wear them for as long as possible
Every child who received the shoes smiled and said, “Thank you.”

We have been receiving many requests for shoes, such as “When will you come next time?” and “We want you to come to our village.”
However, we are currently having difficulty raising the funds, so we are asking people to wait for donations.

But,Shoes arrive every day from all over the country, and the warehouse where they are stored is full.
there are many shoes to be delivered, but the money to donate them is not collected.

This year, we want to donate shoes to children in Thailand.

In order to increase the number of children who can wear their own shoes to school and run around outside without worrying about getting injured,
we will start crowdfunding campaign to raise money to donate to children in Thailand.

If we raise enough funds, we will be able to deliver Approx 20,000 items to children, including Approx 6,000 to 10,000 pairs of shoes.

Thank you for your kindness and support.

 

 

▼What to do with second hand shoes

We believe that “giving second hand shoes” is more than just material support.

Educational support that conveys the hearts of Japanese children and grows a spirit of taking care about things.
Financial support to ease the burden of families who are unable to prepare clothes and supplies for school.
Medical support can reduce the burden on children who walk to school on steep mountain paths in worn-out shoes and prevent injuries.
And for the Japanese children, it has become a learning experience that shoes they can no longer wear can still be of help to others.

Japanese children who care about Thai children and donate their precious shoes.
The Thai children received thoughtful shoes and never forgot the support from the Japanese children.

A pair of shoes can connect our hearts together

 

▼What good things can happen if we give second hand shoes?

 

・Thai children can go to school in their own shoes.

in Thailand, there are severe educational disparities between regions, and the educational environment for children living in the northern mountainous region and the southern region near the Malaysian border is particularly difficult.

Although tuition fees began to be waived in 2019, each family still has to pay for materials, school lunches, and a portion of the school’s operating funds, which remains a heavy burden on each family.

There are many families who have difficulty even buying shoes for each child to go to school.

・we can reduce the number of children who give up on going to higher education and drop out.

In particular, children who live in mountainous areas go to school over steep mountain roads for an hour or two, so their flimsy sandals and shoes quickly fall apart
It is difficult to prepare tuition fees. It is difficult to go to school over long distances.

For these reasons, many children give up on going to higher education or drop out of school.

In fact, the rate of admission to junior high school is 82.8%, high school is57.4%.

Just A pair of shoes can give hope and make a big difference in the future of a child who is forced to give up on going to higher education.

・we can prevent injuries.

In Thailand’s mountainous regions, there are many unpaved roads, and children who run around barefoot or in sandals can be injured at any time.

Currently, health centers that double as simple clinics are set up in each district, but due to a shortage of doctors, they are not always staffed, and in most cases only simple treatments or over-the-counter drugs are administered.

Furthermore, many families do not have the money to go to a hospital in a faraway city.

 

・Japanese children can participate in international cooperation using things that are familiar to them

Generally, when we think of “international cooperation,” we mean things like volunteering in a local area or making donations, and even if children are interested, it can be difficult to get involved.

However, with the activities of SB.HeartStation, anyone, regardless of age, can help someone in need with everyday objects such as the shoes they used to wear.
Last year, children from 23 schools collected shoes at their schools during committee activities and research studies as part of their “international cooperation” activities.

Shoes that supported our growth and shared many memories with us.
Up until now,if they no longer fit,we had no choice but to throw away them .but by giving them to people in need, we can grow the seeds of international cooperation in the hearts of Japanese children and the spirit of treating things with care.

 

 

▼Project details

 

Collecting shoes, other clothes, stationery, etc. that Japanese children no longer wear

[July/September] Sorting and packaging donated items collected by volunteers

 

 

[October] Transporting donated items to Thailand in 20F containers

 

[November-December]
・Donated to schools and orphanages across Thailand with local partner organization TS.Planning
・hand-deliver tour by SB.HeartStation

 

Planned donation destination

[Northern Thailand] Mae Hong Son Khun Yuamvitaya School and several other schoolsChiang Mai, Samun District, Wat Phra That Doi Phasom Temple School, etc.Nan, Chiangrai, Lamphoon, Lee, etc., Thak, Mae Sote
[Central Thailand] Saraburi
[Eastern Thailand] Sriracha, Pattaya, Chonburi
※Donation destination may change.

 

▼How to use funds

・Container transportation cost (about 1 million yen)20ft container transportation cost, customs duty/customs fee
・The cost of distributing shoes (about 1 million yen)Rented warehouse fee, local volunteer food and drink fee, transportation fee within Thailand, rental car fee, coordinating organization fee, secretariat travel fee
・Crowdfunding fee (12% of support amount)

 ▼History of SB.HeartStation

We, SB.HeartStation, are a certified NPO that collects second hand shoes from Japanese children and donates them to children in other countries, with the motto “If you throw it away, it’s just garbageIf you give it to children,it can make them smile.”

This year marks the 13th year since our establishment in 2012.

 

Our activities started after founder Yoshiko Ogawa’s trip to the Philippines.
During his travels, he saw children running around Dump Site barefoot without shoes, and children begging without proper clothing.

Even after returning home, he couldn’t get the images of local children out of his mind, and he thought he had to do something.

He learned about a project run by a former Olympic marathon runner to send used shoes to developing countries.
He sympathized with this project and started personally sending shoes in 2009, but he had difficulty collecting shoes and felt there was a limit to his individual activities.
Then, he gradually expanded his activities and he established SB.Heart Station as a non-profit organization in 2012 with comrade.

Currently, donations arrive every day from all over the country.To date, we have donated 394,501 items to children mainly in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

 

▼What SB.HeartStation values

・hand-deliver 

Every year, volunteers conduct a shoe hand-delivery tour.
Are the shoes we sent reaching the people who need them?
In order to learn about the lives of children, we visit the sites and hand-deliver shoes as much as possible

We let children choose shoes , because we want them to wear fit shoes and find favorite shoes.

 

・International cooperation that everyone can do

Anyone can help someone in need by second hand shoes.
We also hold volunteer shoe sorting activities on the fourth Saturday of odd-numbered months.
People of all ages come together to help with simple tasks such as sorting shoes by size and packing them into cardboard boxes.