| The Soul to Sole Initiative uses Ozify Australia thongs as a vehicle to improve the comfort and posture of the thong devotee to help heighten the appalling plight of homelessness. Ozify Australia, is a cause -related social enterprise program.
Founded in 2017, by Michael Kinchington, he seconded his good mate and mentor Mark Ninio to help with a program that might have a meaningful social impact. Podiatry has provided both Michael and Mark with a great career and we wanted to use a fun concept (an aussie thong, we helped invent) to highlight a very serious problem-homelessness.
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Ozify Australia will procure footwear from a variety of partners and distribute new shoes to the homeless community as part of Soul to Sole.
“…while the Ozify Flip flop is a terrific product, I don’t think it suitable for the homeless community. What they need are shoes that protect their feet and hence body from the environment. Often walking is the only means of transport, so foot-shoe health is a vital component of wellbeing in the homeless community” (Dr Michael Kinchington; Founder Ozify Soul to Sole).
A fundamental core objective of Ozify Australia will be to enlist the support of Australians who can...to help Australians who cannot.
" It is a miscarriage of basic human rights that we have fellow Australians in a First World country that are homeless. Many are unshod, a basic necessity of human wellbeing, that has catastrophic health consequences and belies human dignity”
(Dr Michael Kinchington PhD; Founder Ozify Soul to Sole).
While many programs exist to reuse old shoes, there are distinct social and health benefits in the placement of new footwear.
Via the Ozify Soul to Sole program Ozify will partner with the stakeholders of homelessness to provide footwear. Homelessness accounts for more than 110,000 fellow Aussies. Apart from the obvious dislocation, the health implications are many. Diabetes, Arthritis, Peripheral Vascular Disease, Cellulitis are all conditions that are exacerbated by homelessness.
The importance of footwear is simplistic but at the same time dramatic. Shoes protect the feet from elements, enables a means of transport, is equipment to exercise, is required as uniform for job interviews and social interaction. Thus the simple shoe not only satisfies health requirements also provides an element of self-respect.
Join the Ozify community and together we can make a difference to the plight of the homeless in our community.
Dr Michael Kinchington PhD Mark Ninio
