When Sofia Dilsizian looked through a pair of weather-beaten navy blue shoes and saw the blanket of the bed through the soles, she knew that her perspective on life had changed.
“My feet were burning on the hot cement, and I had bottoms on my shoes,” said Dilsizian, a senior at Redondo Union High School. “There I was, complaining that my shoes were dirty, and these kids didn’t even have bottoms on theirs.”
After months of fundraising, Dilsizian and her two best friends, Kristen and Bridget Abajian, flew to Armenia to personally meet the children and give them the shoes they had raised the money to buy through their project, Share-a-Pair.
They started the foundation because Kristen and Bridget had previously lived in Armenia for a year with their father, Peter Abajian.
“They saw first-hand all the factors that contributed to the poverty there,” said Dilsizian. “Them telling me first-hand opened my eyes and their eyes too. They had this idea to donate shoes to orphans in Armenia and they told me about it. I quickly jumped on board.”
Dilsizian was in charge of the South Bay region. They made brochures, created a Facebook page and solicited donations from friends, family and their churches. With the money they raised, they visited clearance sections and bought up the stock.
“We had shoes everywhere,” Dilsizian said. “I was like, ‘if I ever see another pair of shoes I’m going to be sick!’”
They raised more than $5,000 and were able to purchase more than 500 pairs of shoes with the funds.
“In Armenia,” said Peter Dislizian, Bridget and Kristen’s father, “if you want to buy a regular $15 pair of shoes in the US, it’s going to be $100 there. So it made sense for us to buy an $8 pair of shoes here and ship them there.”
The girls sent shipping cartons, suitcases and eventually they went to hand out the new soles in person.
“It’s not a lot for us, but it’s a lot for them,” said Dilsizian. “It’s amazing that something that is so simple to us is so very vital to their lives. For us we get shoes to match our outfits or for events like prom. For them, it’s a necessity. We get them for fun and to look pretty, but they don’t care what their shoes look like. They just need a sole and a top in the winter. It put things in perspective for me not to complain about shoes being last year’s style. Some of those kids don’t have a bottom to their shoes.”
“The need for shoes for children is pretty much never-ending, both because of the extreme change of seasons and the fact that these children are growing,” said Bridget Abajian.
The Dilsizian’s heritage is Armenian, so for her the trip was the first time she was able to visit her home country.
“I don’t think there are words to describe how excited I was. Not only was I going with my two best friends to our homeland, but we were also doing something amazing. It really put things into perspective. In December the idea of doing this was so far fetched. When we finally got there I was like, ‘Wow, we did this, we put this together.’ It was an amazing experience. I’ve been learning aboutArmeniamy whole life, so actually being there and helping my people was the coolest feeling ever.”
While inArmenia, the group visited four orphanages and distributed the shoes to those facilities based on individual needs. They distributed warmer shoes to the colder regions, and even found specialized shoes for children with disabilities.
“It could have been coats or mittens,” said Peter Abajian. “The reason they zeroed in on shoes was because they are girls. They have a shoe fetish thing going on.”
“We got the sizes of orphans and tried to match up the sizes and give winter and summer shoes,” said Dilsizian. “And then we went to the orphanages and distributed the shoes. We took tours of the orphanages and hung out with them a little bit and saw what their lives were like.”
When they were there, they realized the impact of what they had accomplished.
“Watching the girls handing out the shoes, I realized that it wasn’t necessarily the shoes that were making the difference,” said Peter Abajian. “It really seems to be the case that the kids don’t get enough individual attention. What was meaningful to me was to see the interaction between my kids and their kids. When they are able to talk to somebody, or hold their hand, that is special.”
For more information on the foundation, please visit http://www.paros-foundation.org/project_shareapair.html
