10 Day Countdown – 1 Year With No Shoes

Today begins my 10 day countdown to the end of my 1 year journey of not wearing shoes. You would think I’d be excited about finally being able to put on a nice comfortable pair of shoes. Surprisingly, I’m not. As a matter of fact, I can’t imagine even putting on a pair of socks, let alone shoes.

Pictured here are the feet of two of the children in Cambodia who actually started me on my barefoot journey. It was when I saw these children (along with several others) that started me thinking about the plight of so many children who are at high risk of being exploited by the most vile, evil men on earth today. These children were standing barefoot outside a garbage dump in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The predators who seek them out will give promises of a better life. Once lured by their lies, these children are taken to a place where they are forced into a life of servitude. Usually beaten, drugged and forced into submission, they are forced into prostitution but I refuse to call them child prostitutes. They are sex slaves. The child is forced to serve the most depraved, despicable, sick human beings on earth.  I will do anything to rescue even one of them.  

That night, while taking off my shoes in the comfort of my hotel, I couldn’t stop thinking about these barefoot children. I wondered what it would be like to go 1 full year without shoes. I made the decision that as a show of solidarity and a way for me to relate (in a very small way) with these children, I would do it. I would go 1 year with no shoes – even through the winter in Colorado.

Now that the year is coming to an end, people are beginning to ask me if it was worth some of the discomfort and suffering I endured.

I have never once given it a second thought. The children who are forced into this life of terror and horror are forced to service 10 to 15 men a day…every day. Suffering? Discomfort? If the small amount of pain I went through would help bring awareness and the potential of even one more child being rescued in my lifetime – I would go through the rest of my life without shoes. Yes…even for just one more child.

On day 300 of my barefoot journey I challenged people to join me and go barefoot for just 1 day. I got 1 response. I’ve come to a place in my life where I know people are not me. People don’t think the way I do. People don’t feel what I feel. Sometimes it saddens me that so many people just don’t get it. I’d like to say I understand, but that would be a lie. I don’t understand why the entire world is not in an uproar over this crime against the precious children in our world.

I’d like to leave you with a challenge. During the last 10 days of my barefoot journey will you consider joining me for just one day? How about a half day? Even one hour.

If you do accept the challenge and someone asks you what you’re doing, don’t tell them about me – tell them you’re doing it to bring awareness to the plight of children who are forced into the child sex trade and used as slaves. If it opens the eyes of just one more person to the desperation of these cherished children – it would be worth it.

“No man is worth his salt that is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

~ Dr. Jeff Brodsky ~