1.  What is the aim of The Little Feet Company?
2.  How did The Little Feet Company Start?
3.  Where did  the name 'The Little Feet Company' come from?
4.  How does The Little Feet Company give back?
5.  What is meant by the term Orphans?
6.  What is the age of the children that The Little Feet Company supports?
7.  I want to help The Little Feet Company and the Children of Vietnam how can I help?
8.  How do you decide who to help?
9.  who makes your products
10.  What is Fair Trade
11.  What is a Fair Wage
12.  Are all your products made in Vietnam?
13.  Is the Little Feet Company affiliated with any religious or political group?

1. What is the aim of The Little Feet Company?

The aim of The Little Feet Company is to Improve the lives of Vietnams Orphans and underprivileged children by funding programs to improve their health, education and their wellbeing.

The little Feet Company also aims at delivering the beautiful handmade products of Vietnam to the western world. The Little Feet Company works directly with the artisans of Vietnam to deliver you the customers a beautiful range of fair trade gifts and handmade gifts.

     2.   How did the Little Feet Company start?

The Little Feet Company was started by Sarah Byrnes as a result of her experiences volunteering for three months in Vietnam in the summer of 2007.

Sarah Volunteered through the Global Volunteer Network and worked alongside 13 other volunteers in Da Nang, Central Vietnam in a variety of placements including:

• Da Nang Malnourished Babies Orphanages
• Da Nang Social Supporting Centre
• Da Nang Red Cross Centre
• Di Loc Orphanage
• Dien Ta Day Centre
• Da Nang Agent Orange Day Centre.

In this time both Sarah and the other Volunteers saw the great need that these children had, for improvements in their daily living conditions, medical care, education, nutrition and general wellbeing.

While In Vietnam Sarah and the other volunteers did some personal fundraising. Through Sarah's efforts she was able to see how much of an improvement could be made to these children by a relatively small amount of money. They were able to start a program that employed a physio-therapist to work at all the placement the Global Volunteer Network visited to assist the disabled children and educate the orphanage staff on better caring practices for the children.

Sarah realised that although there fundraising achieved a lot it was not going to sustain the children long term. Therefore a way of raising  consistent funding for the children was to create a business that not only supported the local community and artisans but also generated an income that could be directed to the underprivileged children in the Da Nang area.

After Sarah graduated univeristy in the summer of 2008, she traveled back to Vietnam and now has set up permanent residence in the central town of Hoi an , 30km from the Da Nang placements. The Little Feet Company was established in the winter of 2008 and is now operated online by Sarah in Vietnam, and her mother in the UK.

       3.  Where did the name The Little Feet Company come from?

The Little Feet Company got its name through Sarah’s attachment to the babies she met in the orphanages in Vietnam, in particular a beautiful 1 month old baby girl, who was the catalyst for Sarah’s long term commitment to the children of Vietnam.

   

4. How does The Little Feet Company give back?

The Little Feet Company gives back to Vietnam in Three ways

1. By supporting Vietnam's local artisans by only selling beautiful handmade ethically sources fair trade products. Everything on The Little Feet Company's website is only made in Vietnam by the Vietnamese people.

2. By donating 30% of our profits directly to orphanages, day centres and social supporting centers in central Vietnam.

3. The Little Feet Company hopes to soon be stocking products handmade by some of the older children in the Da Nang Red Cross Vocational Centre. This is something that we are working with the Global Volunteer Network on. This is a great way to promote self esteem and independence to the children who are in these centers. Keep a lookout for products from the 'GVN Kids' ....Coming soon!

5. What is meant by the term Orphan?

When Sarah first arrived in Vietnam she knew she would be working with orphans and underprivileged children. However Sarah believed that children in orphanages in Vietnam were there as a result of the death of either their mother or both parents. However, this was not the case at all in fact over 80% of children in these orphanages are there as a result of there parents abandoNing them due to a wide variety of reasons including, poverty, poor health of the child, disabiilty of the child, or due to the pregnancy be a result of prostitution. The orphans that we work with in the centres may have a whole family living close by, who in some situations visit, but the parents have resigned there parental responsibilities to the child to the centre as they can't care for them. In vietnam there are currently over 1,500,000 orphans.

6. What is the age of the Children that The Little Feet Company offers support to?

In the centres the children can be from 1 day to 25 years old! As The Little Feet Company grows we want to be able to support not only children, but also disabled and poor adults as well in the central area of Vietnam.

7.  I want to help The Little Feet Company and the Children of Vietnam how can I help?

By purchasing our fair trade gifts and handmade gifts from this website, and spreading the word to your friends and family.

By volunteering with the children of Vietnam by the Global Volunteer Network - http://www.volunteer.org.nz/vietnam/.

By holding a fundraising or charity event for The little Feet Company, we have an information pack that is available to help you with your event! contact Sarah at thelittlefeetcompany@yahoo.co.uk

By holding a Little Feet Company Party, where you invite friend and family around to buy a selection of our products - you will receive 20% commission on every item you sell at these events: please contact Sarah at thelittlefeetcompany@yahoo.co.uk.

8. How do we decide who to help?

The Little Feet Company works with the Global Volunteer Network in Da Nang and as Sarah now permantely lives in Vietnam we are able to keep a hands on up to date account of what is happening at the centres and Sarah is able to decide with the Global Volunteer Network staff, volunteers and orphanage staff where our donations would be most successfully utilized to the benefit of the children.

9.  Who makes your products?

All the products on our website have been made by hand by artisans from vietnam. If you visit our ' Our Producers' section of the website you will be able to learn a lot more about the people behind the products.

10. What is Fair Trade?

Fair trade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fair trade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.

11. What is Fair wage?

This defines the lowest possible price that a buyer of Fair trade products must pay the producer. The minimum price is set based on a consultative process with Fair trade producers and traders and guarantees that producers receive a price which covers the cost of sustainable production. When the market price is higher than the Fairtrade minimum price, the market price is payable fair trade minimum price.

12. Are all of your products made in Vietnam?

Yes ,100% of our products are made in Vietnam, they are also all handmade and fairly traded.

13. Is The Little Feet Company affiliated with any religious or political group? 

No, The Little Feet Company is not solely affiliated with any religious or political program. The Little Feet Company fully supports each individual’s right to freedom of speech and has received support and good wishes from a variety of people and organisations. We do not discriminate against anyone, as long as they believe in the rights of every child to have a happy and healthy childhood no matter where they come from or who their parents are.