Scottsdale, AZ—Nov. 25, 2015—With more than 2.2 billion people living in poverty with little to no access to healthcare, education and basic clothing, there is an urgent need to not only provide clothing, but the first pair of shoes in particular, to those in need. Samaritan’s Feet International believes that a new pair of shoes can be a tangible foundation of hope, and donates and distributes shoes to children across the globe.
As an organization that receives shoe donations numbering in the tens of thousands each and every day, Samaritan’s Feet is working with JDA Software Group, Inc. to gain critical supply chain visibility to meet its “sole” mission: to track, and efficiently and accurately deliver shoes to those in need across the globe.
“More than 1.5 billion people are infected with diseases that are transmitted through contaminated soil, and this heartbreaking fact drives us to give children the shoes and socks that will protect their feet and meet their basic, physical needs,” said Emmanuel “Manny” Ohonme, founder and president, Samaritan’s Feet International. “We are grateful to work with many organizations that donate thousands and sometimes millions of shoes to us to distribute to children, many of which are JDA customers. Their generosity requires a robust solution for managing our inventory and tracking shoes globally, and JDA has closely partnered with us to make this a reality.”
Leveraging a range of JDA solutions and services, including JDA’s inventory management and radio frequency identification (RFID) asset tracking solutions, as well as JDA Warehouse Management, Samaritan’s Feet was able to not only keep costs optimized, but also more efficiently track the movement and delivery of shoes that were donated. JDA’s solutions give Samaritan’s Feet better overall visibility into shoe stock among its warehouses, helping to ensure it can always efficiently provide children with shoes—its number one priority—and limit stock-outs.
“With 6.5 million shoes donated across 75 countries, Samaritan’s Feet is making an incredible impact into the lives of children all over the world,” said Bal Dail, JDA chairman and CEO. “We are honored to partner with them and play a role in enabling the delivery of shoes, while also helping Samaritan’s Feet with optimizing its costs and deliverables across its unique supply chain. We look forward to expanding our partnership with Samaritan’s Feet in the years to come and working very closely with Manny, who incidentally began his technology career at RedPrairie, and understands the intricacies and challenges of the global supply chain, and what it takes to successfully implement a strategy that ties these pivotal elements together seamlessly.”
Manny Ohonme was born in Lagos, Nigeria. At the age of nine, he received his first pair of shoes from a good Samaritan. Those shoes became a symbol of hope, spurring him to earn a college basketball scholarship and begin a career in the technology industry. In 2003, Ohonme and his wife founded Samaritan’s Feet International, a 501(c)(3) organization that shares hope by donating shoes and encouraging kids to pursue their dreams. To date, more than 6.5 million pairs of shoes have been distributed to needy children in over 75 countries.
As part of JDA’s ongoing social responsibility program, JDA supports Samaritan's Feet as one of its official global charity partners. And in an effort to commemorate and celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary, JDA is working with its associates, customers and partners around the globe to raise funds and awareness to deliver 30,000 pairs of shoes over the next three years to impact 30,000 children in need. This partnership provides JDA associates, customers and partners an opportunity to serve children in need in the communities where they work and live in partnership with Samaritan's Feet.
