This week, the Greeley West AVID sophomore class was participating in a community service activity to benefit Ugandan residents. The project is called Sole Hope and protects the citizens from a parasite known as the jigger.  The jiggers burrow into the feet of the Ugandans and lay eggs which cause great pain and horrible infections.

The students acquired blue jeans through donations and used the material to cut out fabric in the pattern of a shoe. Those patterns will be shipped to Uganda where Ugandan workers will assemble the shoe for sale. This will not only benefit the cause for their feet, but it will also benefit their economy as well.

Sophomore Ana Rivera stated, “We are helping create shoes because we have them and they, (Ugandans) don’t.  So they need shoes to help protect themselves from contracting the jigger parasite.”

The Sole Hope project was brought to the AVID program by Ms. Susan Eastin who learned about the project by following the footsteps of LULAC who has done this in the past.

There were 14 groups of AVID sophomores making the shoe patterns.  Each group hoped to create enough material to make 10 pairs of shoes.

Sophomore Arturo Hernandez said the project was a positive experience.  “I love helping people out and doing whatever I can to help people in need,” Hernandez said.