Nigel Fisher is a humanitarian and international development expert who has lead relief and recovery efforts with UNICEF for over 20 years in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. He’s done most of his work in a pair of Timberland Fastpacker Boots, circa 1997-98.
Mr. Fisher’s boots have witnessed some truly amazing events, including wading through floods and knee-high mud in 2008 post-cyclone Haiti, through the 2004 post-tsunami rubble of Aceh, Indonesia and the 2010 post-earthquake devastation of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The boots were with Nigel as he visited a UNICEF-supported shelter for girls in Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and again while he trekked across central Afghanistan in 2002 to visit the first schools for girls in remote communities and newly-opened health centres accessible to women for the first time.
These boots have personally encountered tens of thousands of children. If you bear in mind the negotiations undertaken, plans made, operations overseen, assistance delivered, schools built, while they were worn, and the fact that I often negotiated on behalf of UNICEF and many organizations for nationwide emergency or vaccination programs while wearing them, then they timberland boots uk have influenced millions of children’s lives.
- Nigel Fisher
Last week, I was honored to be on hand for the induction of Nigel’s boots at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, where they will become part of a permanent collection. I was also delighted to present Nigel with a brand new pair of Timberland hikers, so that he can continue on his humanitarian journey. Nigel’s wife was on-hand to accept as he joined us via satellite from Haiti, where he continues his work in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
You can learn more about Nigel’s inspiring work and the Bata Shoe Museum exhibition in his honor here, and in the UNICEF Canada video below.