Letter from Shira, our Founder & Executive Director

Hello!

I am excited to welcome you to our new website. The Flip Flop Foundation has grown so much in the past three years, and we wanted to revise our website to show you our progress, and where we are today. I first conceived the idea of the Flip Flop Foundation in July 2006. At the time, I was an employee at Pfizer Inc completing a six-month Global Health Fellowship in Zambia. While the HIV/AIDS project I was supporting was rewarding work, I was interested in the story of the orphans – what happens to all the children left behind by this crisis? I knew that I wanted to create a new organization that would focus on the needs of Zambian orphans & vulnerable children, and that the best way to build a successful organization would be to form a partnership with Zambians helping Zambians.

So what does the Flip Flop Foundation do? Yes, our initial work focused on the distribution of flip flops, but we do so much more than that. Over the years, our distributions have grown to include food, clothing, school supplies, hygiene supplies, mosquito nets, sporting equipment, toys, and more. We also expanded our mission to support sports programs & community education projects – using community drama to educate children and adults alike about key health & social issues. More recently, we began supporting skills training programs for women, typically widows or single mothers caring for six or more children.

We try to emphasize the positive in our website and promotional materials, and we never want to exploit the people we work with. But the things I see every day are truly devastating, and bring tears to my eyes. Your support for our mission and the beautiful people of Zambia is very much appreciated.
Over the course of the last three years, I travelled to Zambia eight times but each time, even before I boarded the airplane back to NY, I was already planning my next trip back. In June 2009 I decided to take an extended leave of absence from Pfizer Inc. It was a very big decision for me to make, but my heart was in Zambia. And today I am proud to call Zambia home.

Thank you so much for checking out our website, and please visit us again soon!

Shira Rohde, PhD
Founder & Executive Director
Flip Flop Foundation
Lusaka, Zambia