The Flip Flop Foundation was founded in 2006 as a partnership between Zambians and Americans concerned about the many Zambian children who lack shoes and other basic necessities essential for health, hygiene, education, and comfort.  American Shira Rohde travelled to Zambia as a Pfizer Global Health Fellow in 2006, and worked for six months on an HIV/AIDS project.  It was during this time that she was touched by the plight of Zambians and stunned by the sheer number of barefoot children on the streets.  Initially, she purchased flip flops at local markets, and distributed them randomly to children in need.  Seeing the need for a sustainable solution, she founded the Flip Flop Foundation shortly before her return to New York City.

Elijah Ngoma first met Shira in 2006 when he was assigned as her driver during her Pfizer Global Health Fellowship.  He served as the driver in the early distributions of the Flip Flop Foundation in 2007, but quickly demonstrated a keen business sense and ability to coordinate key business activities in Zambia.  In 2007, he took a computer training course to build his skills, and obtained a certificate in computer literacy.  In 2008, he was appointed as the Local Director of the Flip Flop Foundation.

The Flip Flop Foundation grew rapidly in 2007 and 2008, with the growth of the Board of Directors in the U.S. and the development of a team of Zambians dedicated to the cause. The work of the Flip Flop Foundation is coordinated across two continents.   Shira returns to Zambia three times a year, and in 2008, three members of the Board of Directors, Dr. Keith LaScalea, Jennifer Andreasson, and Andrea Guzman joined her and the local team in Zambia.  Together, the work has focused on building relationships with recipient institutions, identifying new recipient institutions, developing and implementing partnerships with local and international NGOs, and developing relationships with manufacturers / suppliers for bringing supplies from the U.S. and/or negotiating discounts on supplies in Zambia.  

To date, the Flip Flop Foundation has executed 90 distributions to 36 orphanages, community schools, community-based programs, hospices, refugee camps, and other organizations supporting orphans and vulnerable children.  While support has been primarily to organizations in Lusaka Province, there have also been distributions to organizations in Eastern Province (Katete), Western Province (Kaoma), Luapula Province (Mansa), Copperbelt Province (Kitwe), and Northwestern Province (Solwezi).  Distributions to these organizations have included 4600 pairs of flip flops, as well as shoes, boots, sneakers, and sandals; thousands of items of clothing and 400 pieces of chitenge cloth to make clothes; 360 blankets & 85 sets of bedsheets; food supplies (230 25-kg bags of mealie-meal to make the staple food nshima, 140 bags of rice, 260 bags of sugar, 1500 eggs, as well as soya pieces, ground nuts, red beans, white beans, kapenta, cooking oil, margarine, Milo, tea, milk, salt, and baby formula); school supplies (5300 notebooks, 82 educational posters, 60 storybooks, post-it pads, and hundreds of pens, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, and binder clips); 70 mosquito nets, hygiene supplies (670 tubes of toothpaste & 125 toothbrushes, hundreds of bars of soap, as well as Vaseline, lotion, toilet paper, and laundry soap); sporting equipment (100 soccer bibs, 11 soccer balls, and 10 training cones); one megaphone; and finally, toys, dolls, and stuffed animals.