Sharon Rowley wants businesses to step up

Sharon Rowley, wife of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, is calling on corporations to follow in the footsteps of Payless ShoeSource as the company distributed vouchers for 400 pairs of shoes to less fortunate children. Each voucher was worth $180.

This was Payless’s eighth Shoes4Kids programme. It was supposed to have started out as a back-to-school programme in Latin America and the Caribbean, but it was felt it was more meant for the Christmas season, and it has remained that way ever since in TT.

And, as it has been since the inception, the Cyril Ross Nursery received the vouchers and will distribute them to other homes and orphanages that need them.

Rowley, who has been part of the distribution for the past three years, described it as a “humbling experience.” The event happened at the western branch of Payless at West Mall.

“It is so special to be here today to see all these familiar little faces and the joy in them getting their shoes,” Rowley told the excited children. “If you are anything like me, I love to wear shoes and I know that you do, too.”

Thanking Payless for their generosity and corporate responsibility, Rowley said other corporate entities should follow suit, not just in giving shoes, but in adopting a home and looking after the children.

General manager of Payless Jerus Mohammed said the programme was a social responsibility initiative that defined the true meaning of Christmas, especially for children, who enjoyed the Christmas season the most. He said the objective of the programme was to allow children and families who were less fortunate to choose a pair of shoes from the stores every year, thereby creating good memories.

Yesterday 25 children were able to shop for their shoes, assisted by Rowley, who knelt down to help fit them as Santa pranced around delivering little bags of goodies. The children were also treated to a trip to the Five Island Amusement Park in Chaguaramas.

Manager of the nursery Madonna Stewart-Morris, who has been with the children for ten years, said the staff went out of their way to help them.

“We know they have no mummies, so we are their everything. You can hear them calling us ‘Mummy.’ We are the only mummies they know and the only home most of them know,” she said.

Stewart-Morris said while the staff had their challenges like everyone else, they loved all of the children.