Merry Christmas Number Two

Here's a Christmas opportunity: "For the holidays Toms is upping the ante and wants to sell 30,000 pairs of shoes, donating another 30,000 to children in Ethiopia to help stamp out podoconiosis.  Otherwise known as nonfilarial elephantiasis or “bigfoot disease,” it strikes young people who go barefoot in Africa’s silica-rich soils. It’s particularly prevalent in some areas of Ethiopia where the soil is just right. Tiny particles in the soil penetrate the skin through the feet, enter the lymphatic system, and cause pain, swelling and sores which develop in the legs and feet. It’s a horribly disfiguring disease and can be prevented if only people had shoes to wear. Toms has sold about 9,000 pairs to date (it will donate 200,000 total this year), which means there’s still a ways to go to meet the goal. But it’s a sweet deal: for about $40 you get some hip kicks for yourself or a loved one, and the opportunity to prevent disease for someone else. We’re sold."