We have partnered with Footwork, an international initiative to eliminate podoconiosis (or ‘podo’), a non-infectious geochemical disease arising in barefoot subsistence farmers whose feet are in long-term contact with irritant red clay soil of volcanic origins.

The soil which causes the disease is found in many of the coffee-growing areas of Ethiopia.

According to a recent study, around 25% of the population of Ethiopia relies upon coffee as a direct or indirect source of income, so it is perhaps no surprise that an estimated 1.5 million people in Ethiopia are affected by this disease. Roughly 35 million Ethiopians are thought to be at risk.

Often, farmers who are affected by the disease live in such poverty that they cannot afford shoes and in communities where shoe-wearing behaviour is undeveloped. As well as experiencing acute pain in their lower limbs, those affected also face severe stigma from health workers and members of their own communities.

£1 of every pack sold of Champion’s Choice and the Podium Bundle will be donated to Footwork. These funds will be used to support the national podoconiosis elimination programme in Ethiopia, and specifically to train health workers and to procure treatment supplies.

Research has shown that podo is readily preventable by wearing shoes and treatable through a relatively simple and cheap regimen of foot-washing, applying ointments and use of compression bandages.