Yang You-ren: From Graffiti Dropout to "Shoes That Save Lives" in Africa

30-second overview: Yang You-ren was born in Taoyuan in 1987, the son of a shoe factory owner. After finishing junior high, he was sent to Australia to study, dropped out twice, and at age 18 met a tattooed pastor on a basketball court — a turning point that changed his life. In 2014, a single blog post poster mobilized nearly 100,000 pairs of used shoes for Kenya. He founded "Step30 Old Shoes Save Lives," which has since expanded to 12 countries and served over three million people. In 2017, he was named one of Taiwan's Ten Outstanding Young Persons.

Early Life

Yang You-ren was born in Taoyuan in 1987. His father ran a shoe factory, and this family legacy made "shoes" a central symbol in the trajectory of his life. After completing junior high, at age 15 his father sent him to Australia to attend secondary school, hoping that studying abroad would open doors to the future.¹

Years in Australia and a Faith Turning Point

While in Australia, Yang became immersed in hip-hop culture, nightlife, and street graffiti. He dropped out of high school in his second year, later enrolled in an art and design college, and dropped out again. During this period, the family shoe factory back home also went bankrupt and fell into debt. At 18, he met a heavily tattooed former gang pastor on a basketball court. That man's story led him to church, and the direction of his life changed from that point on.

After returning to Taiwan, he first taught English at "Carpenter's Home Care Association" in Zhongli, then worked in youth ministry at a church on the campus of Chung Yuan Christian University, finding a new sense of purpose through volunteer work. In 2011, he met his Canadian wife Kara Remley at church. They became engaged and married after two months of dating. The couple went on to have four daughters and made multiple trips to Africa together for ministry work.²

The Birth of "Old Shoes Save Lives"

Yang's father-in-law, Allen Remley, was a Canadian missionary serving in Africa. In 2014, he shared the plight of children along the Kenya–Uganda border: barefoot children suffering from sand flea infestations that burrowed into their skin, causing ulcers in mild cases and amputations in severe ones — and the solution was as simple as a pair of shoes.

Thinking of the old inventory from his father's shoe factory, Yang posted an "Old Shoes Save Lives" poster on his blog on April 19. The poster spread at a pace no one had anticipated, collecting nearly 100,000 pairs of shoes and seven metric tons of clothing in a short time. That September, the first 40-foot shipping container arrived in Kenya; in November, Yang traveled there in person to oversee distribution, making sure every pair of shoes reached a child's feet. The operation was later turned into a documentary chronicling the entire relief effort. The campaign was named "Step30," intended to encourage Taiwanese youth under 30 to step out and participate in humanitarian work.³

Aid Philosophy: Avoiding Dependency

Yang's core principle is "avoiding long-term dependency." He deliberately partners with local church networks, transforming material aid into tools for community self-reliance rather than creating a permanent pipeline of external support. This principle has guided the design of every subsequent program and represents the most significant distinction between his approach and conventional donation drives.⁴

Expansion into Sustainable Community Programs

Following the shoe donation campaign, Step30 gradually developed four program areas: the "School-Building Initiative," converting shipping containers into classrooms, computer labs, and clinics; the "Living Water Initiative," drilling wells in water-scarce areas and establishing local maintenance committees; the "Love Girls Initiative," teaching women to produce cloth sanitary pads to address period-related school dropouts; and agricultural self-sufficiency training through chicken-raising and organic farming. The shared logic across all programs is that the endpoint of aid should be self-reliance, not the next shipping container.⁵

In recent years, Step30 has served over three million people across 12 countries, with nearly 25,000 registered volunteers. In 2017, Yang You-ren was selected as one of Taiwan's Ten Outstanding Young Persons.⁶

Yang is the author of Blessings in 50,000 Pairs: How a Small Action Can Change the World (Campus Bookstore, 2018), which chronicles the founding of Step30 and his journey in African ministry.⁷

References

Further Reading

• Step30 Old Shoes Save Lives — Step30 official website, with the latest service data and volunteer information