5 Fashion Companies that Address Extreme Poverty

Some would say that fashion is their life. Others say they don’t care about what they wear. For fashion companies that address extreme poverty, finding a middle ground can make all the difference. Companies like the ones below would argue that fashion can both impassion the apathetic and give cause to the already passionate.

Raven and Lily – Empowering Women. Alleviating Poverty.

Live thoughtfully. With this as one of her life axioms, Kirsten Dickerson created her unique and ethical brand of fashion, Raven and Lily, in 2008. In 2013, Dickerson met a group of female Afghan artisans living for decades as refugees on the Pakistan border. The experience moved her to expand her business.

Since then, Raven and Lily formed 17 partnerships throughout 10 countries while employing more than 1,500 women. Dickerson provides jobs and educational opportunities as well as an ethical and sustainable product. “We are genuinely trying to think through all levels of our production practices and how people on the planet are affected,” Dickerson said.

By providing steady employment, including fair wages and education, Raven and Lily has established itself among the fashion companies that address extreme poverty on the most foundational of levels.

Accompany – Where Every Purchase has a Purpose.

If asked about its mission, Accompany will say its first priority is to help human beings. Ranked among the fashion companies that address extreme poverty head-on, the organization has an uncomplicated approach to the way it does business. Its three-tier system ensures the products have a purpose by:

• Being handmade.
• Abiding fair trade practices.
• Having philanthropy at the center.

The results of this system are exponential: cultural heritage is preserved for generations to come, self-sufficiency is rooted in a new-found education and services are provided to the community at large. In short, change happens.

Socially-conscious industries help create that change. When Jason Keehn founded the organization, his vision was to leverage a thriving industry for global communities in need. As they boldly proclaim on their website: Welcome to a New Style Culture. It’s a culture that seems to be shared by all fashion companies that address extreme poverty.

Apolis – Advocacy through Industry.

With Apolis, the name says it all—a name that means “global citizen.” When they created their company in 2004, brothers Raan and Shea Parton believed business could be the impetus for social change. They have taken that belief, along with their investment in people, and have created a model for other fashion companies that address extreme poverty.

A certified B Corporation, Apolis meets high standards with regard to social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. When asked about their brand of activism, Shea Parton stated, “[it’s] really about how you can go into an impoverished country and find a resource or product or raw material that allows you to bring it into the marketplace and to give an opportunity rather than charity.”

This mindset likely formed from a young age, according to Parton, who says “our parents knew that if we stayed in Santa Barbara, we would never know how good we had it.” With constant travel to countries like Uganda and India, the Parton brothers learned perspective early on, and they have put their perspective into action.

Bloom + Grace – Beautifully Made. Ethically Sourced. Globally Minded.

Bloom and Grace was founded in 2013, a jewelry company resulting from an inspired founder. When Dani Lachowicz found herself working in sub-Saharan Africa, she seized an opportunity she knew would change the lives of children in developing countries. Partnering with the U.N. Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign and with local artisans, proceeds from Bloom and Grace go toward life-saving vaccinations.

Just how life-saving are vaccinations in developing countries? Here are some facts:

• A child dies every 20 seconds from a disease that can be prevented by a vaccine.
• The World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Global Alliance for Vaccinations have already seen a 99 percent reduction in polio and a 78 percent reduction in measles-related deaths.
• Increasing access to vaccines can prevent 1.5 million deaths each year.

It is Bloom and Grace’s hope to empower communities and to promote entrepreneurship, while also living up to their namesake by allowing children the opportunity to bloom by the grace of socially-conscious patrons.

Krochet Kids, Intl. – Creating Jobs. Changing Lives.

Kohl Crecelius, Stewart Ramsey and Travis Hartanov founded Krochet Kids, Intl. from a shared high school hobby of crochet. Krochet Kids Intl. looks for ways to empower people to rise above poverty and provides life-changing job opportunities for women in need in Uganda and Peru.

With each purchase, consumers are invited to meet the maker of their product and are encouraged to write a note of thanks and encouragement. With this very personal approach to business and a partnership with We Are Capable, an organization with 10 years of experience fighting extreme poverty, the organization is able to stay committed to its desired areas of impact:

• Women in poverty-stricken regions
• Job opportunities
• Education

Fashion companies that address extreme poverty understand that behind every fabric is a face, and behind every accessory is an opportunity for access to those who wouldn’t otherwise have it.

– Daniel Staesser

Photo: Flickr

Lessons from Three Notable Humanitarians

Improving the world is no small task. It can take great amounts of resources and effort to drive global change. And even with the proper tools, global change can still seem like a distant vision rather than a reality. Usually, this is where the thought process ends. Inspiring change is too daunting a task for most people. But not for everyone.

Notable humanitarians show the world a different way of thinking. They see the complex problems of the world and begin to push towards a solution. In doing so, they set an example for everybody else. So who are these notable humanitarians?

Three Notable Humanitarians

1. Bill Gates

   The Microsoft co-founder knows about humanitarianism. In 1994, Gates and his wife Melinda began a decades-long mission to improve the world, founding what would become the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The organization is a strong force for global health, development and policy advocacy. Since its founding, the organization has contributed billions of dollars towards global issues. This money has funded many global initiatives, especially relating to health and education. The foundation cites continuous collaboration with partners as a key to being effective.

   Gates has made humanitarianism his sole focus. In 2014, he stepped down from his chairman position at Microsoft to concentrate on the foundation.

   The Lesson: Improving the world requires everybody working together.

2. Kristine Pearson

   After doing research in parts of rural Africa, Kristine Pearson noticed a problem. Despite the spread of community radio stations, many people still did not have radio access.  Much of this was because of issues with electricity coverage. Armed with this knowledge, Pearson set out to make a change. That change came in the form of wind-up and solar-powered radios. Given the energy poverty suffered by many in rural Africa, this was a perfect fit. Using this technology, Pearson has been able to spread radio access to more than half a million people. For those that otherwise would be unable to afford this access, Pearson is a hero.

   When she founded her charity, Lifeline Energy, in 1999, Pearson became a catalyst for change. She was able to help combat poverty through radio. With access to radio broadcasts, rural Africans are better equipped to deal with emergencies, and their day-to-day lives benefit as well. Educational content, news and weather broadcasts are all useful for rural citizens. Pearson made these benefits attainable for many through her notable humanitarian work.

   The Lesson: Social entrepreneurship can improve quality of life in developing countries.

3. Norman Borlaug

   Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug is the definition of a notable humanitarian. Borlaug developed a wheat cultivation method that increased crop yields in Mexico. His background in agronomy allowed him to create innovative ideas for the country. Mexico faced complex agriculture problems, and Borlaug’s work was a breath of fresh air.

   After his original work in Mexico, Borlaug took his methods across the world. His work throughout the 1940s and 1950s created what was later called the “green revolution”. Because of his methods, several countries were able to rise out of famine. In fact, by the end of his career, Dr. Borlaug had saved more than a billion people from starvation.

   The Lesson: Reducing global poverty requires innovative thinking.

Being a humanitarian can take many forms. Creating a charity, spreading radio access and increasing crop yields are just a few of the numerous ways to help others. As seen from the stories of these three notable humanitarians, they can be very effective. Whatever the method, the end goal is the same: to make the world better.

– Robert Stephen

Photo: Flickr

15 Organizations That Help Improve the World

With the myriad difficulties that face the world, it is essential to have organizations making the planet a better place. Without such generous assistance, the world would be plagued with unmanageable adversities. The following is a list of 15 organizations that help improve the world with their innovative ideas and generous efforts.

1. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
   The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is an organization that works to fight hunger and its consequential effects on a global scale. It works specifically to eradicate infectious diseases and child mortality rates in struggling countries.

2. Doctors Without Borders
   Doctors Without Borders delivers emergency aid to people in need. These efforts include helping people in situations of natural disasters, epidemics and lack of health care.

3. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
   The FAO’s prime purpose is to defeat hunger. It works in 130 countries worldwide to help ensure people have access to food and are not going hungry. The organization has been fighting hunger since 1945.

4. Human Rights Watch
   Human Rights Watch was established in 1978 and is an organization that reports on human rights conditions in countries all over the world. With its findings, it meets with governments and financial corporations to urge for policy changes that assist the betterment of human rights around the world.

5. Oxfam
   Oxfam is a global organization that helps improve the world through poverty-reduction efforts. It focuses on the conditions that cause poverty and works to fix the effects of such difficulties. Its efforts include disaster response, programs to help people afflicted by poverty and education improvement.

6. Red Cross
   Founded in 1881, the Red Cross foundation works to help people in urgent need. Assisted greatly by volunteers, the Red Cross mainly provides disaster relief, support to America’s military families, health and safety services, blood donations and international services.

7. Save the Children
   Save the Children is a nonprofit organization that focuses primarily on helping children in need. This includes emergency response, global health initiatives, HIV and Aids prevention, disaster response and creating educational opportunities. In 2016, Save the Children reached and assisted 157 million children.

8. The Borgen Project
   The Borgen Project is a nonprofit organization that aims to end poverty by working to make poverty a focus of U.S. foreign policy. The organization is an influential ally for the world’s poor that educates and mobilizes people to communicate with their Congressional leaders to ensure funding for poverty-fighting efforts are not eliminated. In 2017, the organization had volunteers in 754 U.S. cities and is one of the 15 organizations that help improve the world immensely.

9. The World Bank
   The World Bank works with other organizations to provide extensive financial assistance to developing countries. It was established in 1944 and has more than 10,000 employees and 120 offices worldwide.

10. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
    The UNDP is an organization that aims to eradicate poverty. It implements this goal by developing policies, skills and partnerships to enable people to sustain their progress and improvement. The UNDP is in over 170 countries and territories.

11. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
    UNICEF is an organization that fights for children’s rights to shelter, nutrition, protection and equality. It does so by being children’s advocates and providing humanitarian assistance to children and their families, most often in developing countries.

12. United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
    USAID is an international agency that provides development assistance to countries in need. It works to advance U.S. national security and “economic prosperity” by promoting self-sufficiency. It uses humanitarian response efforts to bring disaster relief and supplies to those who are struggling.

13. World Food Programme (WFP)
    WFP’s mission is to fight world hunger and provide people around the world the quality food they need to survive. It does this by working with U.S. policymakers and other foundations to organize financial resources, as well as develop necessary policies to assist the fight against worldwide hunger.

14. World Health Organization (WHO)
    Of the 15 organizations that help improve the world, WHO is among the largest. The WHO is an organization that works directly with governments and various partners to ensure a healthier future for people all around the world. It fights infectious diseases and works directly with mothers and children to improve and maintain their health.

15. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
    The WWF is an international nongovernmental organization working to conserve nature and reduce extreme threats. It also aims to increase awareness to prevent further damage to the earth and its inhabitants.

These are only 15 organizations that help improve the world. There are many more that work together with partners to help make the world a better and safer place to live. Their generosity helps people on a daily basis live healthier and happier lives, and it is troublesome to think of where the world would be without such assistance.

– McCall Robison

Photo: Flickr

Donated Bicycles: Opening Doors and Changing Lives

Bicycles are essential to communities in developing countries. A bicycle provides an advanced mobility that allows for heavier loads, faster trips, less wear and tear on the body and, happily, the chance for recreation. A person’s day will include more accomplishments in less time.

Bicycles mean productivity. And donated bicycles mean opportunity.

Getting the Donated Bicycles

Entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations alike have become forces in mobilizing citizens with donated bicycles. Mike’s Bikes, a California-based bike shop, partners with other area businesses and organizes bike drives to fill shipping containers full of used bicycles and spare parts. Like Mike’s Bikes, Bicycles for Humanity ships bikes and parts in containers, and both organizations outfit the containers so they can become bike shops for the village in which they land. Bicycles for Humanity even refers to their containers as Bicycle Empowerment Centers.

World Bicycle Relief produces new bicycles, known as Buffalo Bikes, through monetary donations. They are built specifically for the rugged conditions of the particular region, with puncture-proof tires and a heftier frame for carrying more cargo. Bicycles Change Lives also produces new bicycles, naming its program Qhubeka, a Nguni word that means, “to progress,” or, “to move forward.”

Creating Jobs

Bikes for the World also ships donated bicycles and parts in large containers. The organization focuses on Africa, Central America and the South Pacific, and works with partners like the Village Bicycle Project in Ghana and Sierra Leone and the Madagascar Community-Based Integrated Health Project (MAHEFA) in Madagascar.

In El Salvador, the Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technology (CESTA) has built up an impressive bike shop, and an equally impressive program for training at-risk youth to work in it through the reconditioning, repair and maintenance of bikes. CESTA runs EcoBici, the training program aimed at helping young people build skills and stay out of gangs.

Donated bicycles are so vital that, as the youths learn to eventually manage their own shops, they find themselves at the center of their community with positive engagement and interaction. For people of all ages, the village bike shop has become an integral component in developing countries as a productive hub for societal and industrial activity.

Healthcare Workers and Their Patients

Remarkably, bicycle transportation improves health in rural areas, and not just for the rider. Amid the health crises in regions of Africa, trained healthcare workers and volunteers do all they can to visit patients in their homes and in hospitals, but are often traveling on foot.

In Zambia, one community volunteer, Royce, works to help citizens of her village by testing their HIV/AIDS status and educating them on prevention and treatment. Before she received her bike, she would walk seven kilometers each day to visit three patients. Now, thanks to World Bicycle Relief, she travels on two wheels and visits 18 patients, including vulnerable children, in a single day. “I’m always happy when I ride my bike,” says Royce. “People in my community recognize me.  They say, ‘There goes our caregiver on her bike.’”

Elsewhere in Zambia, three healthcare volunteers, Gertrude, Robert and Francis, who work to prevent and treat malaria in their region, enjoy a similar experience when they are recognized on their bright orange Buffalo bikes, painted so for the 1500 health workers in the area.  “When they see the bikes,” says Robert, “they know we have come to fight malaria.”

Statistics at World Bicycle Relief show that the over 138,000 Buffalo Bike-mobilized healthcare workers can reach 45 percent more patients and travel four times further than was possible on foot.

Education and Empowering Girls

The greatest challenge for most children wanting to attend school in developing countries is simply getting there. World Bicycle Relief statistics point out that the attendance of a student with a bicycle increases up to 28 percent, while their academic performance increases up to a dramatic 59 percent. And for girls, completing their education means they are six times less likely to become child brides.

For one 15-year-old girl, Ethel, a two-hour trek to school across rough terrain is now a 45-minute bike ride. Being on time helped her become a confident and exemplary student. Ethel even began using her bicycle to transport fellow classmates to school.

Education is key for the progressing dimensions of developing nations, including breaking the cycle of poverty. From 2009 to 2016, over 126,000 students have received Buffalo Bikes through World Bicycle Relief.

The advantage of mobilization by donated bicycles for workers, healthcare volunteers and students is tremendous. It also reaches farmers and small business operators who can travel greater distances with more wares to sell. It reaches citizens like businessman Ernest in Ghana, who gets his work done earlier in the day and can now coach a local youth soccer team in the time he’s saved. It reaches 14-year-old Koketso, who says there is now a cycling club at her school and that she’d like to take cycling up as a sport.

“With my bicycle,” Koketso says, “I can visit a lot of places that I have never seen before.”

– Jaymie Greenway

Photo: Flickr

5 Reasons to Donate Money, Not Stuff

In the midst of global tragedies, many charitable people decide to send old junk or underused resources to foreigners in need. Here are five reasons why one should donate money, not stuff if one wants to solve global hunger.

1. “Junk” is a logistical nightmare for volunteers. The people brave enough to enter disaster sites must provide emergency care to people in immediate need. They lack the necessary time to sort, transport and store cheap diapers or old sweaters sent in by well-meaning folks. Yahoo Finance reports an incident where, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a benefactor sent thousands of pounds of cheese to New Orleans. The trouble was that no working refrigerator could hold such a gift. Lots of material goods appeal to a customer’s wants… they’re not so effective in situations of dire need.
2. Material donations can wreck a nation’s economy. Kathleen Tierney, the director of a Natural Hazards Center in Colorado, notes how economic problems occur in recovering nations when a supply outstrips a demand. “If you want to see economic recovery, you don’t want to send so many supplies that you create a situation where people can’t survive in a business sense,” said Tierney. Ultimately, the best use of aid is to help a country until they can take care of themselves. It’s difficult to make one’s living selling T-shirts if a global superpower dropped off millions of shirts for one’s potential customers to wear for free.
3. Local groups know what resources they need. The Central Texas Food Bank, the largest provider of emergency food distributions in the country, was shut down by flooding during 2017’s Hurricane Harvey. The group’s president, Derrick Chubbs, supports monetary donations instead of material aid. He reasons that relief groups in a disaster area know exactly what they need for certain situations. They only lack the funds to acquire the most helpful tools for the job. The chance to clean one’s house and accomplish a moral good is tempting for a lot of do-gooders. But one can achieve similar results by selling old junk to a consignment store (like Goodwill or Half-Priced Books) and donating the proceeds to a respected charity. With one additional step in giving aid, the effectiveness of a donation multiplies.
4. “Stuff” is a short-term solution to a long-term problem. The media focuses on the immediate aftermath of a tragedy but often loses interest by the time victims have to return to their homes. Groups like the Salvation Army understand that maintaining emergency shelters and rebuilding destroyed sites takes a long time. This is why nonprofits want people to donate money, not stuff. Not only do charities know what to spend cash on, but they know how to divide that cash to ensure a complete job. Such relief groups cannot fix a community with a stuffed animal sent from across the country.
5. It’s more effective to call/email your representative. So how can someone help if they feel they lack the money to keep themselves afloat? One free solution would be to contact your representative and ask that your government contribute aid to a country or region in need. The Center for Global Development reports that the U.S. donates only 1 percent of its budget towards International Affairs, which includes disaster relief. Not only can this amount be increased through advocacy, but concerned citizens can ask their representatives to support revenue-neutral bills to solve global problems. Anyone interested in this surprisingly easy path to advocacy should explore The Borgen Project’s page on calling Congress.

– Nick Edinger

Photo: Pixabay