Ang Peregrino Recommends 5: Buy Shoes. Save Lives.

Delshad has a hole between the ventricles of his heart, and was singled out by Israeli doctors at the October screening in Jordan as a child who needs surgery in the near future, before pulmonary hypertension would leave him inoperable. His visa for travel has already been approved, and thanks to your continued advocacy and purchases, BSSL contributed almost 40% of the necessary funds and he will be headed to surgery this week! Sometimes we cannot believe this is actually working!

The reason for the high incidence of cardio-vascular diseases in Iraq is not known. Some people blame Saddam Hussein’s chemical warfare experiments with the Kurds for it. Whatever the reason, it is a fact that thousands of children in Iraq are suffering from Rheumatic Heart Disease caused by Rheumatic Fever. Because of the healthcare situation in the country, very few of these children survive. It was this situation that led Jeremy Courtney and Cody Fisher to establish Buy Shoes. Save Lives.

Jeremy and Cody became fascinated with Klash and started asking around about how it is made and the people making it. They also discovered a group: Shevet Achim (Brothers Together), a team of Israeli doctors who have donated their surgical skills to Muslim families as their contribution to the peace process. Jeremy and Cody brought these two (Klash and Shevet Achim) together in order to help the children.

If you want to help the Buy Shoes. Save Lives movement, you can do these things: you can buy the shoes yourself (visit this page)–they accept all major credit cards thru PayPal. Or you can blog about it (like what I’m doing now), email this to friends; if you’re in a band or you’re an artist, you can join the the network of musicians and artists that support the movement with proceeds from their albums and concerts; and if you’re into these things, you can even volunteer as an intern in Northern Iraq.

In the end, the Buy Shoes Save Lives movement is more than just the shoes. It’s probably even more than just saving lives. Because when you try to save other lives, you’re actually saving your own–you become a better person and you are never the same again.

This is the manifesto of Buy Shoes. Save Lives and this would actually make a good manifesto for those involved in fighting war and waging peace and helping the least and the lost: “We will not embrace the hate handed down to us. We will not retaliate. We will not repay evil with evil. We will use business - yes, even fashion - we will beg; we will teach; we will make film and sing our songs; but whatever we do we will do with love, because “…love never fails.” Trade and aid; commerce and charity. To give ourselves away. We choose Preemptive Love.”