Nadige, a campaign to collect used footwear to be held in Udupi from Oct 23 to 25

A few concerned individuals in Udupi will organise ‘Nadige”, a campaign to collect used footwear for recycling and later donating them to the poor in the city from October 23 to 25.

The drive would be undertaken at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College in Kunjibettu, said Avinash Kamath, one of the organisers, adding high-heel footwear and footwear of children below 10 years would not be collected.

The public may donate their used good quality shoes, slippers, rubber shoes and chappals, he told reporters in Udupi on Thursday. In the first ‘Nadige’ campaign held in 2023, the target was to collect 5,000 to 6,000 footwear. However, the response from people of Udupi was beyond expectations and about 18,000 pairs of footwear were collected.

Mr. Kamath said the collected footwear will be given as raw material to Mumbai-based GreenSole. The organisation will recycle them and make new footwear and distribute them free of cost to those without footwear and disabled people across the country.

GreenSole has been running this eco-friendly initiative since 2016. Ramesh Dhami and Shriyans Bhandari, founders of GreenSole Foundation, will participate in the campaign, he informed.

Bharat Shetty, treasurer of Sugnan Educational Trust, Ashwath S.L., co-founder of Karkala Creative Education Institute, Sharath S. Alva, vice principal of Udupi Group of Educational Institutions, Manipal and Suchit Kotian, lecturer in the Department of Journalism, MGM College, were present.