March/April 2002 Living Now
Eco-sandals from Recycled Rubber Tires

by by

Kenya - The name of the Kenyan shantytown of Korogocho means "without hope" in the local dialect, but an environmentalist entrepreneur is working to bring hope to the locals. Together with his friend Benson Wikyo, Matthew Meyer, a third-year law student at the University of Michigan, co-founded the Wikyo Akala Project, a community-based sandal-making operation which recycles rubber tires from the town dump into "eco-sandals" and sells them around the world.  The sandals, made with durable soles recycled from old car tires, last five years or 50,000 miles, and they are providing an increasing number of unemployed young adults with job opportunities and rewards to last a lifetime.

With the help of a website (Ecosandals.com) launched in 2001, the project is providing ecologically and socially responsible sandals to the world -- and bringing hope (in the form of money for food, housing, education, and health care) back to Korogocho. 

Courtesy of The Good News Agency - www.goodnewsagency.org