Hand-stitched soft leather mules from the Shoes South Africa brand are to be sold by UK retailers in a project designed to boost aids victims in South Africa. Suggested retails price for the shoes is £29.99 and the bulk of the profits will to go directly to the trust’s charity, which will distribute them to orphanages for children who have lost one or both parents to the plague and are potential carriers of the disease.

The scheme is a brainchild of a group of footwear manufacturers who felt they could do something practical to help the South African victims of aids. Drawing labour from some of the worst affected areas they taught local women to make moccasin style footwear.

World Health Organization predicts that the epidemic will claim eight million victims and orphan more than two million children in South Africa by 2010.