Stepping Up: Framingham Worker Donates 3,000 Shoes To Venezuela

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Martha Convers may be over 2,000 miles from her home country of Venezuela, but that hasn't stopped her from helping those suffering through the country's humanitarian crisis. Convers' tool of choice is a simple one: shoes. While the country has been running dangerously low on a plethora of medical, food and personal care supplies, it was brought to Convers' attention that shoes were also becoming a rarity.

Convers is a Westborough resident and came to the U.S. 15 years ago from Venezuela. She said even then, she and her family fled a violent situation that has only gotten worse.

"My daughter was held at gunpoint, twice — we were robbed, we're lucky to be alive," she said.

Convers' life looks very different now. She works as a real estate agent at ERA Realtor Services in Framingham and teaches Zumba on the side. As if that wasn't enough, Convers started a donation campaign called "Shoes for Venezuela" after talking to a friend who works as a teacher in the country.

"He said we need everything, but the worst of all is that the kids are not coming (to school) because it's too expensive to buy a pair of shoes," Convers said. It is not uncommon for a pair of sneakers in Venezuela to cost more than a month's salary for some.

Since she started collecting shoes in November of 2017, Convers sent over 3,000 pairs to the country. Collecting the shoes seems to be the easy part, she said, organizing and shipping them is much harder. "It's expensive to ship all those shoes out," Convers said. By the time the shoes make it to Venezuela, they will have passed through Massachusetts and a stop in Miami. In the winter, Convers held a Zumbathon in Framingham to raise money to help cover the cost of shipping.

Convers is humble and quick to note that she hasn't been alone in her work. Aside from the countless people who donated shoes, she said she has a steady stream of 25 volunteers who help her organize and ship out the shoes.

"They're my friends, people I've worked with, other Venezuelans who want to do something to help," she said.

Many of the volunteers were moved to take action after a 2017 opposition-led referendum. Voters in Venezuela and expatriates abroad, like Convers, participated in a symbolic referendum vote to reject President Nicolas Maduro’s plan to change the constitution. Convers helped organize a voting station in her Real Estate company's building in Framingham.

Since then, she said ERA has been incredibly supportive of her efforts to help her home country and has been accepting shoe donations in her Framingham office.

Donations haven't stopped coming in and Convers is planning another shipment for the summer. She can't put a hard number on how many shoes she currently has ready to ship because they're spread throughout volunteer's garages and homes in the area, but it's over 1,000. Convers rattled off the names of volunteers holding boxes of shoes — 750 pairs in one spot, 500 in another, the list goes on.

"We just don't have the space to keep them all in one place," she said.

Convers said one of the most rewarding things she's seen is the diversity in donators. A Vermont man recently donated 25 shoes, high school students from Northborough teamed up to donate 500 shoes, even middle school students have made an effort to donate.

The outpouring of support offers some comfort to Convers, who said she can never really feel at peace with her extended family still in Venezuela. "You can never say your family is safe there," she said.

For now, she continues to send pieces of herself and supporters 2,000 miles south, to walk with the residents of her home country.