New Balance donates shoes to Afghanistan
US footwear firm New Balance Athletic Shoe Co. has made a donation of around 28,500 pairs of athletic footwear for Afghan girls as part of a programme of aid for the country. Until this month girls over eight years old in Afghanistan had not been allowed in school, and under the Taliban no girls of any age had been allowed in school at all.
Jim Davis, chairman of New Balance, announced the donation to the Vital Voices Back to School Programme for Afghan Girls. The programme hopes to provide shoes and socks for some 150,000 Afghan schoolgirls.
"By providing these girls with much needed footwear," said Davis, "they will be able to take the first step into a brighter future.
In Kabul girls in bright red dresses participated in ceremonies on March 23 marking the first day of school. Hamid Karzai, interim Prime Minister of Afghanistan, welcomed both girls and boys back to school and in an emotional address said that the school children were the future of Afghanistan.
