1: What are you trying to accomplish?
2: What's your evidence that you can accomplish it?
3: How is it possible that you can provide an open heart surgery in Iraq for less than $1,000? Is that the full cost?
4: So is that the same thing as saying that my donation doesn't really make a difference? That the "up to 85%" funded locally by those inside Iraq is all that is really necessary to make this work?
5: Any other costs?
6: What is the bottleneck to more surgeries: money or skilled labor?
7: I'm skeptical of non-profits and charities because they always seem to be asking for more money. How can I be sure that Preemptive Love Coalition has "room for more funding" and that I'm not paying into a huge savings account, "Rainy Day Fund", or something similar?
8: Do you have enough volunteer surgeons available for unfunded Remedy Missions? (i.e., are there trips that you could fund if you had more money, or is there a labor bottleneck?)
9: Many heart surgeries require follow-up treatment (including additional surgeries). Do you have a way of providing these to patients?
10: How do you assess whether surgeries are completed competently and appropriately?
11: What is the rate of complications during and following surgery?
12: How do you assess whether surgeons are performing additional surgeries that they would have not had the funding or motivation to perform otherwise?
13: How do you assess whether surgeons are charging their patients for the surgeries you fund?
14: Do you follow up with the surgeons you've trained to assess whether they are correctly applying their training?
15: What information is available on the activities - and competence - of the surgeons you've trained?
16: Where do surgeons work after completing training? Do they serve poor patients?
17: How much do you spend each year on "program" expenses and how much on "overhead?"


----------

 Q: What are you trying to accomplish?

A: Train Iraqi heart surgeons and nurses so they can eradicate the backlog of tens of thousands of Iraqi children waiting in line for lifesaving heart surgery. [Back to Top]

 Q: What's your evidence that you can accomplish it?

A: Each year we continue to increase Iraq's total number of pediatric cardiac surgeries with new surgeries in Iraqi centers that would not - indeed could not - have been accomplished otherwise. Ministry of Health (MOH) officials speculate 500 surgeries were accomplished in 2009 (of which we provided 23 - 4.6% - outside the country). The addition of our 82 surgeries in FY 2010 - to the 500 baseline - for a total of 582 approximated surgeries, represents an increase created by PLC of 14% over 2009. In FY 2011 we anticipate increasing Iraq's total number of pediatric cardiac surgeries to at least 719 (or another 19% over FY 2010 directly attributable to our surgeons and our training).

Each year the local teams with which we work will become more proficient, and each year they will independently take on a larger case load than they could have the year before. None of these figures yet account for that additional output.

In March 2010 the Iraqi Ministry of Health asked us to expand our work to three additional sites. In May 2010 we began additional discussions about establishing a fellowship program in which international surgeons and nurses would take up residence in the Iraqi system to train locally for 40 weeks out of the year.

Our model does not rely strictly on volunteers because the level of need in Iraq outstrips what we could reasonably supply through volunteer labor alone. Accordingly, we set our budgets so as to actually contract the international surgical and nursing staff we need to accomplish our mission.

Sure, this increases the cost-per-mission (and thereby, cost-per-child) over early "mission" models in which volunteerism was idealized and training was not necessarily prioritized. But our contract labor + volunteerism model is inarguably the only way to create a nationwide quarterly training program and fellowships inside Iraq with international experts across approximately 6-8 surgical sites. Moreover, our model does not face the same sluggishness of learning that other surgery organizations suffer because we do not have the same rates of turnover; we have incredible consistency across our programs and missions. [Back to Top]

 Q: How is it possible that you can provide an open heart surgery in Iraq for less than $1,000? Is that the full cost?

A: The "less than $1k" numbers we routinely publish represent the amount in "program costs" we spend from our international donor money. The figure does not necessarily account for every single management, overhead, or fundraising expense.

Our total expenditures for FY 2010 were $188,919. We performed 82 surgeries during the same period for a per child total of $2,304 (though this data is a bit moot moving into 2010-11 as we abandon our very expensive "surgery exports" program(s) in Turkey, etc. and focus henceforth on more cost-effective in-country surgeries alone).

When all of our Remedy Mission partners are taken into consideration - including the Iraqi Government, medical companies that donate medicines and supplies, and local organizations - the real Remedy Mission cost to all donors is in the range of $5,400 - $7,000. Put another way, up to 85% of the total cost of a single surgical/training mission is now subsidized by local, Iraqi constituent institutions. [Back to Top]

 Q: So is that the same thing as saying that my donation doesn't really make a difference? That the "up to 85%" funded locally by those inside Iraq is all that is really necessary to make this work?

A: There is not a single site across Iraq for which our Remedy Missions are fully funded. If we fail to provide our 15-19% of the overall budget, Remedy Missions fail, surgeons and nurses do not get trained regularly, on-site audits from our international team do not happen, up to 20 children are delayed from receiving surgery, and a few may even die or become inoperable. Your role in funding the remaining 15-19% is as critical in the short term as any other entity. A single Remedy Mission is binary - it either happens or it doesn't. Your money makes it happen. But our goal is to continue to graduate all our programs so they are 100% funded locally in the next 5-10 years. [Back to Top]

 Q: Any other costs?

A: Our numbers per Remedy Mission do not account for "indirect costs," such as the cost (or value) of our volunteer medical staff from around the world, costs to local healthcare systems, the cost of a family to travel to the surgery site, the opportunity costs of lost income for families as they wait for surgery, etc. The reason we think it's important to note this here is because lifesaving is actually quite difficult. Building a pediatric cardiac surgery system for the entire country of Iraq is laborious and full of complexities. [Back to Top]

 Q: What is the bottleneck to more surgeries: money or skilled labor?

A: People often assume that the biggest need is more Iraqi heart surgeons. We could use a few more, but the real bottleneck is skilled nurses, technicians, and non-surgical physicians. A surgeon is only as good as his support staff. One of our biggest challenges is training pediatric cardiac intensive care nurses. To date, we haven't found a better model than our Remedy Missions through which we bring quarterly hands-on training to local nurses (and surgeons) in Iraq. Rather than exporting the nurses to Europe or the USA for training (whose medical systems barely resemble the Iraqi system), we train them with what they have on hand in their local environment. [Back to Top]

 Q: I'm skeptical of non-profits and charities because they always seem to be asking for more money. How can I be sure that Preemptive Love Coalition has "room for more funding" and that I'm not paying into a huge savings account, "Rainy Day Fund", or something similar?

A: For the record, we are skeptical of non-profits as well! In 2012 PLC needs $350,000 on hand at any given time to cover our cash flow needs for up to three Remedy Missions per quarter. We are still 30% under-funded against that goal. In addition to cash flow needs, we still require 15-19% funding on most of our missions after local sources contribute their portion; we have un-funded pilot programs in new cities where local doctors have been requesting our help (but where weve yet to woo local philanthropists or health directors); and we have research and social service initiatives through our Followthrough program that require funding at present because we have not yet sought local funding for those initiatives (seeing as how they relate mostly to our Monitoring & Impact Evaluation objectives). Please see our "Funding Gap" page to look deeper into our anticipated program costs, the sources of funding we are counting on, and the funding gap between the two for the next few years. [Back to Top]

 Q: Do you have enough volunteer surgeons available for unfunded Remedy Missions? (i.e., are there trips that you could fund if you had more money, or is there a labor bottleneck?)

A: Great question! We use a hybrid volunteer/staff model. Roughly 25-30% of any one of our Remedy Mission teams is employed by the International Children's Heart Foundation (typically the surgeon, scrub nurse, anesthesiologist, ICU doctor, and often a part-time ICU nurse). The remainder of the team typically comprises volunteer physicians, technicians, and nurses from across the world. Because the hardest-to-come-by positions are contract labor for us and NOT volunteers, we have never failed to run a mission for lack of personnel. We have only cancelled or turned down a request for a future mission due to lack of funding. [Back to Top]

 Q: Many heart surgeries require follow-up treatment (including additional surgeries). Do you have a way of providing these to patients?

A: Yes, we do. Our model dictates quarterly visits to each program site (a hospital inside a regional hub). Our reliance on local cardiologists ensures that the local team prioritizes and almost entirely sets the agenda for patient selection (within a development curricula) - after all, Iraqi doctors are the ones who are most intimately connected to the patients and their daily progress! When a local cardiologist sees a child who has either (1) deteriorated and requires another intervention or (2) advanced as expected to the next step of a complex, staged intervention, the child is prioritized for follow-up treatment. [Back to Top]

 Q: How do you assess whether surgeries are completed competently and appropriately?

A: Because we are a broker and play a combination administrative and financier role in the coalition of partners working in Iraq to develop pediatric cardiac care, we are able to stand in-between the local surgical team and the international surgical team (whom we contract as a third-party to train and perform surgeries in Iraq). If the local team or health directorate suspects a lack of competence in the international team, a cavalier attitude, or a single poor judgement call, our role is to be the go-between - to be the advocate for the local healthcare providers vis-a-vis the international surgical team.

Similarly, if the international surgical team feels pushed by the local surgical team to perform procedures with which they are uncomfortable or for which they think the local system is ill-prepared, they are able to refuse children for surgery and/or use us (PLC) as a go-between.

The checks-and-balance between the two teams helps us ensure surgeries are performed in a competent, appropriate manner. [Back to Top]

 Q: What is the rate of complications during and following surgery?

A: We report our in-hospital and 60-day mortality after each Remedy Mission. You can finds those numbers here. We also produce reports after each Remedy Mission detailing the trip, including data on intraoperative complications, post-operative complications, and mortality. You can find those reports here. We are also deliberately raising the funds necessary to help us bring our various heart hospitals into compliance with the International Quality Improvement Collaborative for Congenital Heart Surgery in Developing Countries. If this kind of quality improvement and reporting initiative interests you, we are currently looking for financial partners for our Followthrough program. [Back to Top]

 Q: How do you assess whether surgeons are performing additional surgeries that they would have not had the funding or motivation to perform otherwise?

A: Pediatric heart surgery in Iraq is almost nonexistent without our work. There are two active programs for relatively simple surgeries (one in Erbil and one in Baghdad). Local surgeons claim that combined they perform no more than a few hundred pediatric surgeries a year. In every location where we work, pediatric heart surgery is effectively nonexistent. Therefore, every surgery performed at our program sites (both when we are present and when we are not) are "additional surgeries" that they would not have had the SKILL to perform without the FUNDING we employed to train them in their local environment. [Back to Top]

 Q: How do you assess whether surgeons are charging their patients for the surgeries you fund?

A: Because we work in public (government) hospitals - and because healthcare in Iraq is provided almost entirely free of charge - it is widely known that any cardiologist, surgeon, or administrator seeking compensation for services is acting outside of Iraqi law. [Back to Top]

 Q: Do you follow up with the surgeons you've trained to assess whether they are correctly applying their training?

A: We see them quarterly in their local environment and perform real-time audits of their skills, recollection of past training, application of new techniques, etc. Additionally, our international surgeon remains on call at any time via phone, Skype, or email for consultation. [Back to Top]

 Q: What information is available on the activities - and competence - of the surgeons you've trained?

A: Because our Remedy Mission training program only began in late 2010 - and pediatric heart surgery at our sites across Iraq is the same age - there is still relatively little independent practice to report, and therefore little data on the activities and competence of our surgeons and their teams. But as they begin performing more surgeries independently, we are trying to align each site/surgical team with the International Quality Improvement Collaborative for Congenital Heart Surgery in Developing Countries (a data collection and tracking initiative of Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard University). [Back to Top]

 Q: Where do surgeons work after completing training? Do they serve poor patients?

A: As of Q2 2011 there was only one private hospital in Iraq (to our knowledge) providing pediatric heart surgery (and those surgeries were on the lower end of the complexity scale). Our work does not necessarily mean to exclude private hospitals as they continue to come online and become viable options, but at present the government system has a better equipped foundation for training local surgical teams. As we look to fully graduate our local surgical teams in the next 5-10 years, we imagine that most of them will stay in the public sector for all of the stability, pensions, and benefits of loyalty provided to those who stick with it. But, undoubtedly, some will seek positions at private hospitals (assuming private hospitals are willing to invest in the requisite capital purchases necessary to establish a credible program). In the public sector, rich and poor are served alike. In the private sector, poorer patients would be at an obvious disadvantage. [Back to Top]

 Q: How much do you spend each year on "program" expenses and how much on "overhead?"

A: As a rule, we do not adhere to the model that claims that "overhead" is somehow bad and "program" is somehow good. There are very bad program expenses. There are overhead expenses that are excellent investments. We agree with Paul Brest, President of the Hewlett Foundation, when he said, "Achieving a low overhead ratio drives many charities to behaviors that make them less effective and means more, not less, wasted dollars." Therefore, we spend as much on overhead as we need to accomplish our mission. The mission itself is our North Star - not arbitrary (even harmful) standards about overhead-vs-program expenditures. For the record, however, you can find a current pie chart of our expenditures here (and if you're into that sort of thing, you'll probably be impressed!). [Back to Top]

Jeremy Courtney Founder, Executive Director Twitter: @Jeremy_Courtney

“I'd love to hear any critique or questions you might have!”

DROP A NOTE OR DONATION BY MAIL: Preemptive Love Coalition 1300 Darbyton Dr. Hewitt, TX 76643 GIVE BY PHONE: To make a gift over the phone, using your credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover), please call +1 (806) 853-9131 during normal business hours. IRAQ OFFICE: +964 770-355-6298 (local)

In Search of Shoes

March 9, 2008 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

You’ve heard that bit about the Iranian border, terrorist crossings, tea smugglers, porous trails in between security checkpoints, etc? Apparently it’s all true. 

 

We went  to Hawraman in search of shoes yesterday. Hawraman is a typical border town, having been arbitrarily divided and thereby having been forced to grow up on two sides of the border. We didn’t go into Iranian Hawraman; but Iraqi Hawraman was phenomenal. 

 

We did indeed see tea smugglers, with their mules packed down, weaving the windy roads into the Iranian mountains. Supposedly the donkeys know the trail by heart and can still deliver the tea (or whatever else they smuggle) if the Iranian officials get too close and the human guide has to abandon the cargo. 

 

Hawraman is built into the mountains in a terraced manner. We climbed 540 “stairs” to one guy’s house just to buy 7 pairs of shoes. We trekked another kilometer to a roof top patio where we inspected some 200 shoes and walked away with 28. But the net result was money saved and more control over the product compared to buying in the larger city markets; not to mention greater economic impact. 

 

We were there at the behest of a former regional commander of the Kurdish peshmerga, whose guests for the day included a few scraggly Americans (that would be us), business men decked out in Western suits and ties, a parliamentarian for the Regional Government, the former 20-year mayor of Halabja, and a number of armed guards. And though it was entirely unnecessary, he sent one of his guards with us to traipse through the city “just in case.” 

 

As with all the former peshmerga with whom I’ve sat, I found it funny that a man would swear on the Qur’an while downing whisky shots and gambling over poker. Nice guy… but what does swearing on the Qur’an really amount to in that context?

 

Part of his agenda for the day was to connect us with the poorest klashmakers in the community. In this way, this protector of the people was acting as a conduit for foreign investment directly into the lives of the city’s poorest – without skimming anything off the top for himself. 

 

The same could not be said for the parliamentarian. He tried to horn in on our bulk purchase and buy a pair of shoes at our significantly discounted mass-meets-mercy prices. To my astonishment, the klashmakers stood their ground and told him he could afford a full-priced pair!

 

We left Hawraman about 5:30 p.m., feeling completely at home, but having been previously warned that “it is not a safe place at night.” I’m guessing it’s not because of the tea smugglers. 

 

We arrived back in our city a couple hours later, completely worn out from the “up-hill-both-ways” drive. For the first time in my life, I can actually conceive of my father’s “when I was a child” stories. 

 

We’ve made some preliminary arrangements for the klashmakers to visit our office next week to make a delivery according to our specifications. We’ll be eager to see how that goes, and excited to continue on partnership with them in the event that all goes well. 

 

Thanks for reading… over and out.

 

The BSSL  Peeps

“Buy Anything. Save Lives.” at iGive.com

December 14, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

Buy Anything? Save Lives?

For some of you, it may already seem ludicrous that buying shoes could in any way be connected to saving lives. And now we are about to tell you that buying just about anything can help to save lives.

We recently stumbled across a New York Times article that tipped us off to a website that makes a percentage donation from any purchase on participating partner webstores to a cause of your choice (Buy Shoes. Save Lives., anyone?).

All you have to do is go to iGive.com, register as a user, and then use their website to navigate to hundreds of well known online retailers. That means when you go shopping at say, Gap.com or iTunes or HomeDepot.com or Expedia or buy.com, a small percentage of every purchase will be given to Buy Shoes. Save Lives.

The percentage donated usually ranges between 1-4%—certainly nothing like the 50+% to fund heart surgeries when you buy handmade shoes or stylin’ tees through our website—but this is a case where money is time and every penny counts when you’re trying to save the lives of Iraqi kids.

And when Americans spend over $100 billion (and growing) each year buying things online, we’d be more than willing to put a paltry one percent of that towards saving lives and investing in the local economy here.

So before you buy those last minute Christmas gifts online, go register at iGive.com and designate BSSL as your cause (No. 44486). Then anytime you shop online, make sure that you stop by iGive first to see if you can shop through a store that will let you buy anything to save lives.

Compassionate capitalism, anyone?

A Little Google Help, Please…

November 26, 2007 by Jeremy · 448 Comments 

Tonight I searched the word “shoes” on Google and found the first reference to Buy Shoes. Save Lives. on page 80. I admit, it was a little disheartening.  

So this is a plea that you all go guerilla on Google and help catapult BSSL into the single digit pages of Google’s search for shoes.  Go to Google.com and type in the word “shoes.” Then browse the pages until you find the homepage for Buy Shoes. Save Lives. Do not forget to CLICK that link, thereby logging Buy Shoes. Save Lives. as your destination for your shoe search. 

If enough people do this, coupled with other traffic, it’s possible that we will start to receive more incidental traffic, sales, and surgeries as a result.  

Additionally, as you browse for “shoes” you will see many sites dedicated to eco-shoes, vegan shoes, and fashionable shoes. Not to mention shoes that somehow make you do good while looking good. Please go guerilla on those sites, as well, and hit the comment sections hard with references to BSSL, asking people to check us out while telling a brief blurb on our story.  

You guys own this thing… without you none of this happens. So thank you for prioritizes Iraqi children in the way you browse the web today. It’s a serious 5 minute contribution that just might make a difference in the world.  Sincerely, Jeremy and Cody 

BSSL Featured on Relevant Store

October 10, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

Thanks again to Matt Addington and everyone else at the Relevant Media Group for their interest in the well-being of Iraqi children.

This week they’ve decided to feature Buy Shoes. Save Lives. on their online store – which is a great honor given the other wonderful products and organizations with whom they partner.

So check out the Relevant Store as a partner in our effort to save lives in Iraq by selling our one-of-a-kind fashionable shoes. Buy something while you’re there. And leave a review on their site if you’ve bought something from us and LOVE IT!

Thanks, Relevant. You’re saving lives!

Jeremy, Cody, Jessica, & Michelle
Big Relevant Fans

Meet Dyarko

September 18, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

We wanted you to meet Dyarko. Dyarko is two and a half years old from Chamchamal, Iraq. His family’s extremely poor and they borrowed all of the money they needed just to get him to the heart screening.

It’s an awesome reality as BSSL to just give someone money and tell him that he doesn’t have to pay us back, that he’s not in debt to us. They appreciated this help so much.

So put your klash on – or go buy some - and strut around your neighborhood or workplace telling everyone, “My shoes save lives!”

Help us keep the momentum going. Unfortunately, we have a long list of people who need more than Dyarko does.

For your feet and the future of Iraq,

Cody and Jeremy

The Official Doctor’s Report:

That’s to certify that the above mentioned lovely baby has recurrent attacks of upper respiratory tract infection in the last few months, on examination of precordium there’s harsh pansystolic murmur (Grade V), all over precordium, maximal intensity over apical area with radiation to the axilla. On July 10th 2007 his Echocardiography shows Hypoplastic RV, with enlarged left side, functionally single ventricle and abnormally related great arteries, with imparied global systolic function and diminished ejection fraction. This lovely bably needs surgical correction of this congential defect in a highly qualified center outside the country. Oh behalf of the patient’s family I wrote this report. [sic]

Lifesaving Kurdish Shoes Now Available from the Relevant Media Group Online

September 17, 2007 by Jeremy · 2 Comments 

There are few groups of people in the world whose work consistently wows us like that of the Relevant Media Group. We’ve been ardent readers of their online magazine for years. Our Accounting Department – defying all stereotypes about accountants – listened to the Relevant Podcast religiously until we moved to Iraq and became largely cut off from things like regular electricity and internet. I’ve enjoyed their print magazine a few times when I’ve gotten my hands on it. And a few books from their book publishing arm – such as Flashbang, Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse, and The Gutter – have been extremely enjoyable and beneficial reads.

All this to say, we were thrilled when we signed on the dotted line with the Relevant Store as a partner in our effort to save lives in Iraq by selling our one-of-a-kind fashionable shoes.

Head on over to their site to see the cool layout and say thanks. Leave a review while you’re there to let others know what you think about BSSl and klash. While your there, buy a book or download the podcast to learn more about the amazing Relevant Media Group.

Thanks, Matt Addington. You’re saving lives!

Jeremy, Cody, & Michelle – Big Relevant fans

BSSL Stateside

August 21, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

For the first time, people are actually walking around the streets – maybe even your street – with Buy Shoes. Save Lives. klashi kurdi on their feet. As far as we know, these are the only shoes on the planet that actually save the lives of Iraqi children with heart problems.

And with that first shipment, we want to be really transparent and let you know that we’ve had a few returns for sizing problems. We’ve learned a lot from the experience and are pretty confident that we are doing better today than we were a month ago at making the best sizing decisions for our customers. We’ve also stood behind our no-questions-asked return policy for new shoes that don’t fit right. We’ll pay for the return postage and send you another pair until we get it right. It’s the only way we know how to gaurantee your satisfaction when asking you to buy shoes that save lives, sight unseen.

So let your friends know: yeah they’ve had sizing problems – but the margin of error has been very small and they’re doing everything they can to work with customers until they get it right.

Alternatively, you can catch the BSSL tour as we travel through Texas over the next months. We’re also looking at a jaunt through California sometime later this semester. Stay tuned here to see if a mobile retail center will be swinging through your state anytime soon (but I’m telling you now, the only states on the list are going to be California and Texas…. possibily an Arizona or a New Mexico thrown in if we end up driving…).

Lastly, BSSL has placed itself under the watchful eye of various business consultants to ensure that we have the maximum amount of transparency and accountability in our business practices, and to do as much as we can to ensure that we have the healthiest set of principles in place to guide our way in the coming months.

We have two or three big pieces of news we want to break here soon… Just give us a few days to tie up a few loose ends.

peace

staff

Work In-Progress

July 25, 2007 by Jeremy · 523 Comments 

As with most grassroots business (or is it most business?), things are perpetually changing around here, with “here” being a fluid idea that encompasses Buy Shoes. Save Lives. volunteers in America, shoemakers in Iraq, or this weird “here” called the Internet and BSSL’s online home, buyshoessavelives.com.

“Here” in America things are changing as one donor has given $1,500 for marketing and advertising expenses. We’re currently researching options for how to best spend that money, what demographic to pursue, and the timing of such an investment.

“Here” in Iraq we’ve made our first purchase of over 30 pairs of shoes and shipped them to the States. If you ordered before July 15th, your klash are only a few more weeks away from arriving at your door so you can rock the ‘hood.

“Here” in Iraq we’re aslo trying to do some travel this week to learn more about the shoe-making process and to potentially cut out the middle man, thereby allowing more funds for heart surgeries.

“Here” at buyshoessavelives.com we had a generous investment of time by a American business owner who did an in-depth review of the site and gave us some tips on how to cut out the fat and beef up the beef. We’re not the most savvy guys around, and we didn’t start this thing because we were marketing gurus or salesmen, but we’re doing our best to keep up with demand and communicate what we have going on here and why others should want in on it.

Thanks for hanging with us. Keep checking the blog…. there’s more exciting things around the corner.

Jeremy & Cody

Online Store Radified

July 16, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

To “ratify” is to approve or confirm something. To vote “yes.”

To “radify,” however, is to make something cooler or better; that is, to make it more rad. You can also “coolify” something or “sweetify” if you’re so inclined. We were so inclined. So we went over the top and made it better for you.

Changes we made:

Delineating the Classic klash color options into three different products with corresponding pictures.

Added a notice that you can pay by mail-in check or cash. Just email us for details.

Removed US Shoe Size parameter. It’s proving to be useless, as even US companies do not have consistent sizing standards.

Replaced US shoe size parameter with a mandatory “Measure your foot in centimeters” parameter. We included instructions on how to Google your foot’s measurement in inches in order to get the centimeterage.

At checkout, we made a mandatory field for your foot in centimeters just to ensure that we can serve you best.

Additionally, many of you have asked about making donations. Apparently you already have enough hand-made, hand-dyed, hand-spun shoes from Iraq in your wardrobe and you just want to help the children. We applaud you. That’s why we radified the site. You can now make a donation of your designation from the online store and foot the bill in lieu of making an actual product purchase.

You guys never cease to amaze us. Keep the viral marketing going, and let us know how we can help you help us help kids.

The Radifier

Traffic Report

July 14, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

I’m amazed at the Internet. God bless you, Al Gore!

When we check the reports each day, it is becoming increasingly clear that you guys are behind this thing, because there’s no way we’ve generated this buzz by ourselves.

We’ve now had over 900 unique visitors from China, Korea, Africa, Indonesia, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Italy, Germany, the United Arab Emirates and a lot of other places, as well! That amazes us!

Do you know anyone India? We don’t. How about Australia? It’s the only continent that apparently hasn’t heard the news yet. Japan anyone? I don’t have any contacts there, but you do. Let them know.

And if anyone wants to submit banners for different languages, just submit them in the comments section below.

Keep checking back each day. It helps our status in Google, and the higher we climb in Google, the greater likelyhood that someone will stumble across us while looking for “shoes” or “Iraq.” When that day comes, we’ll truly be able to help Iraqi children with greater speed and frequency.

peace,

Passport Control

« Previous Page — Next Page »