Social Good Archives

April 13, 2017May 10, 2019

— 25 Comments

10 Amazing Wines that Give Back

“For it is in giving that we receive”. – Francis of Assisi

If you have followed my blog for awhile, then you know how much I love curating my ever growing list of Gifts that Give Back on my blog. It has become my most popular page and is the most widely searched of all my content. When I saw a post on my friend’s blog Epicure & Culture on wines that give back I was elated. I love wine and I had no idea that there are wines that taste delicious and also give back to a cause to make a difference. She agreed to let me share the post here. I look forward to ordering some of these wines and knowing that I am also doing good while enjoying a delightful glass of vino!

Sip These Ten Wonderful Wines to Help Change the World

This is an original post that first appeared here on Epicure & Culture and was written by Katie Foote, Epicure & Culture Contributor

There’s nothing like a glass of wine to help you relax after a stressful day at work or to complement a meal. While the alcohol in wine helps make you feel good, you can enhance that warm fuzzy feeling by purchasing the following bottles. With these you won’t just be sipping your everyday merlot; but wine that gives back to social causes and the environment.

Read on to choose which sip you want to support, from sustainable seafood to stopping animal cruelty to providing jobs for ex-inmates and beyond. Cheers to that!

Berlin, creator of Proud Pour and bottles. Photo courtesy of Proud Pour.

1) Save The Oysters With Sauvignon Blanc

Proud Pour (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

When Proud Pour CEOs Berlin Kelly and Brian Thurber realized they shared a love for Mother Earth — and wine — a genius beverage was born. Their sauvignon blanc donates 100% of proceeds to the planet. In fact, the purchase of each bottle restores 100 oysters, which in turn helps clean 3,000 gallons of water per day. Adds Kelly, “Often times 100% of our profits aren’t enough to restore 100 oysters or plant 875 wildflowers per bottle, so we’ll forego salaries and use our personal savings to do the work.”

Their sauvignon blanc is sustainably grown on a family-owned vineyard in California. The wine’s floral notes are well balanced with minimal acidity and a smooth minerality to pair perfectly with farmed oysters.

Meg Murray of Nasty Woman Wines. Photo courtesy of Nasty Woman Wines.

Gifts that Give Back SOCIAL GOOD

March 4, 2017April 10, 2019

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Kiva: Be Bold for Change, Invest in Her

I learned about Kiva years ago after reading the life-changing book “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. This book could not have been more timely in my life as after reading it, I immediately began investing in women at Kiva and also using my voice as a blogger and social good advocate to help improve the lives of women and girls.

Kiva is an international nonprofit founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. What I love about Kiva is the brilliant concept of using small micro loans to empower people in the developing world to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. These are normally people who do not have access to traditional bank accounts and Kiva’s micro loans provide the missing link that they need to succeed. Kiva’s loans not only improve but change thousands of lives and what a greater gift than providing opportunity and empowerment, especially to women.

In honor of International Women’s Day this Wednesday, March 8th, Kiva has launched an exciting campaign called “Be Bold for Change, Invest in Her”. The ambitious goal is to crowd fund $3 million in loads for thousands of women from March 1-8. Kiva is offering 10,000 new visitors the chance to lend the equivalent of $25 on Kiva for free as part of the campaign. You can choose which woman you want to support – a woman starting or growing a business, going to school, accessing clean energy or investing in her community.

Individual loans of $25 are collected until that woman’s loan request is fully “crowdfunded.” It doesn’t cost new visitors a thing and they can be part of achieving the campaign’s overall $3 million goal alongside Kiva’s 1.6 million individual lenders. Furthermore, 100% of every dollar you lend on Kiva goes to funding loans. Kiva covers costs primarily through optional donations, as well as through support from grants and sponsors.

February 24, 2017April 10, 2019

— 37 Comments

The Refugee Crisis in Lesbos, Greece: A Story of Heartbreak and Hope

“Our goal is to place a human face on this world event and meaning to the term refugee. This ongoing crisis is changing the world. We believe there is an urgent need to educate and offer an opportunity for people to connect to the human side of this tragedy.” – Robin and Robert Jones

It was a typical warm April evening on the Greek Island of Lesbos when the first raft arrived that would change this island community and the world forever. Santa Barbara-based couple Robin and Robert Jones had been living part-time in the small, beautiful village of Molyvos on Lesbos for the past 42 years and had witnessed the town develop from a fishing and agricultural community to one dependent on tourism.

View from Robin and Robert Jones house. Photo credit: Robin Shanti Jones

They were dining with friends at their beautiful home when they looked out the window and off in the distance approaching perilously in the sea was an inflatable raft filled over capacity with people wearing bright orange life vests. There were mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, babies and grandparents. It would be the first of many rafts to come ashore to their tiny town of 1,000 people.

For these refugees, Lesbos was a beacon of hope from the dark, cruel world of war and death that they were escaping in Syria and other parts of the world. Despite the dangerous, treacherous passing across the sea, reaching Lesbos represented a promise of safety and hope for a better life.

Map of Lesbos, Greece.

Coming ashore. Photo credit: Robin Shanti Jones

Refugees arriving by raft. Photo credit: Robin Shanti Jones

In 2015 Lesbos became an epicenter for the refugee crisis sweeping across Europe and Asia. At the beginning, fewer than 150 refugees a week were landing on the island. By the time the Jones returned to the US in November, 3,000 desperate people were pouring onto their beaches every day after having made the dangerous crossing from Turkey. They arrived wet, cold, scared and hungry yet filled with hope.

For the first several months as the rafts began trickling in, there was no organized help set up. The town and the world were completely taken by surprise and unprepared at how to provide aid and services to all the refugees. Thankfully, a large group of volunteers took over and helped the refugees by providing food, water, and whatever help they could. Tragically this was only the beginning of their long mass exodus to safety.

The Jones’s joined other volunteers to help the refugees, over half of whom were women and children. Until buses started in the fall they had to walk 60 kilometers over mountain roads in sweltering heat to cross the island to the official Registration centers. Picking up refugees in personal cars was illegal but many people like the Jones helped transport refugee families.

The long walk to the registration center. Photo credit: Robin Shanti Jones

At a rest stop set up for the refugees, Robin, an art teacher, provided paper, colored pens and a blue and white checkered Greek tablecloth she spread on the ground to give the children a place to draw. They sketched tanks and guns but also flowers and homes. Streaks of blue represented the water they had just crossed. The kids were at first a little shy but then they began to draw. And as more and more children got involved, an amazing scene developed. The activity offered a moment of relief to the many children arriving on the beach or entering the temporary chaos of the transit camps.

Robin brought table cloths, pads of paper and colored pens to give the children, who had just made the horrendous sea crossing a few hour before, the opportunity to draw pictures and give them a sense of normalcy in the chaotic environment. Photo credit: Robin Shanti Jones

Global Issues Humanitarian SOCIAL GOOD

November 29, 2016April 7, 2019

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Gifts that Give Back: b.a.r.e soaps

I am always looking for inspiring social good enterprises to feature on my blog. This past month, I had the opportunity to speak with Jessie Yoh, Co-Founder and CEO of b.a.r.e. soaps, an all natural, socially conscious soap and candle company that helps women and children in Uganda and India. b.a.r.e. stands for “bringing antiseptic resources to everyone” and was built on the idea that something as simple as a bar of soap can effectively help prevent the spread of diseases and illnesses while improving overall health and hygiene.

b.a.r.e soaps was inspired by Jessie’s friend Clare Li’s mission trips to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Uganda where she witnessed the desperate need for basic health necessities. After every mission trip, Clare returned energized to make a difference but was never sure how. The idea behind b.a.r.e. soaps didn’t arise until August 2012 when Clare was in Uganda, and brainstormed an idea to make her own soap and use proceeds to invest in developing communities that lacked basic sanitation.

b.a.r.e. soaps

After Clare returned to the US, she pitched her good friend Jessie her idea. Jessie, a business major, hopped on board immediately. Upon further research, the pair realized that there was a problem also at home. The soap we typically buy from our local grocer or drugstore isn’t really soap. In actuality, it’s made with synthetic and artificial compounds. Thus, a two-fold mission for b.a.r.e. soaps began: First, to educate and provide an all-natural product for those at home, and second to create a sustainable sanitation program for the children in Kaberamaido, Uganda. While working full-time, the pair launched the business in September 2013 and have been changing lives ever since.

Jessie pumps a well located within the Carepoint grounds. This well is shared amongst the community, and there is always a steady stream of women and children pumping water from ti

Empty Jerry cans await to be filled at the Carepoint well.

Clare conducts a soapmaking trial run during a trip in 2014. The women were interested in learning how to make soap to sell to others. Unfortunately, lye, a crucial ingredient in soap making, is hard to find in Kaberamaido, which makes this endeavor a huge challenge.

Children from the Carepoint show off their coloring after Clare conducts a handwashing 101 workshop

Here is their inspiring story.

b.a.r.e. soaps

Gifts that Give Back SOCIAL GOOD

November 18, 2016November 29, 2016

— 15 Comments

One women’s courageous fight with Mesothelioma

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along”.- Eleanor Roosevelt

Every so often I get that one email that truly touches my heart and moves me to action. It came about a month ago from a fellow Minnesota mom named Heather Von St. James. Heather is a 10-year survivor of a rare cancer called mesothelioma, who against all odds beat the disease, and is a prominent advocate for mesothelioma awareness and an outspoken proponent of banning asbestos. Her beautiful blog “Beating the Odds – My Decade of Mesothelioma Survivorship” and advocacy work for the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance continues to spread awareness of the disease, give hope to those fighting the battle and seek justice to stop the use of asbestos in the United States. Here is a brief part of Heather’s story that drew me in.

Heather, her husband Cameron and daughter Lily

“A diagnosis that would change my life” written by Heather Von St. James

I remember the waiting. From the cold patient waiting rooms, on hospital beds waiting for the CT machine and biopsy to start and especially the long, to angst filled days at home waiting for results. After all the testing, the poking, prodding and questions to try to figure out my breathlessness, sallow skin and all-consuming exhaustion…my husband, Cameron and I were left to wait for the answers.

These things happened to other people, not to me. That’s all I could think, how surreal all of this was. I had just given birth to my daughter, Lily, how could I be back in the hospital hearing the words CT scan, thoracentesis and “there’s a mass in your lower left lung.” After the years I spent working in a salon and farther back to when I had smoked, I was trying to block out the million thoughts racing through my mind, the heaviest and most terrifying of all – cancer.

Finally, on November 21, 2005, the answer came. It was malignant pleural mesothelioma. Cancer had overtaken the lining of my left lung. Cams and I sat in my doctor’s office too stunned to speak. When Dr. Flink asked me if a family member had worked around asbestos, the image of my father’s dusty work jacket I wore each day as a child to do my chores came flooding back to me.

It was his next words that rocked me back to life, “If you don’t do anything, you have about 15 months to live.” With chemo and radiation I could get up to five years. Five years. Maybe.

SOCIAL GOOD

September 20, 2016September 21, 2016

— 14 Comments

Andrex® partners with UNICEF to help save lives in Angola

Clean water, basic hygiene and sanitation – collectively referred to as WASH – are essential for the survival and dignity of people around the world. Despite being a basic human right, clean water and adequate sanitation is tragically not available to millions around the world; especially the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

It is hard to imagine that today there are around 2.4 billion people who do not have access to improved sanitation, and 663 million who do not have access to improved water sources (1). Without these basic requirements, the lives of millions of children are at risk. Children under the age of five are especially at risk, as water- and sanitation-related diseases are one of the leading causes of death. Every day, over 800 children die from preventable diseases caused by poor water and a lack of sanitation and hygiene. (2)

Angola, a country of roughly 23 million people in Southern Africa, has tried to move forward after 27 years of brutal civil war yet remains a struggling country with high levels of poverty, maternal and children under age five mortality rates, and one of the worst sanitation problems in the world. The most recent National Census figures (2014) report that more than 10 million people lack access to improved sanitation, with the majority of the unserved living in rural areas, where only one in four has access to adequate basic sanitary services (3). Open defecation rates average 40 percent nationally, with 74 percent open defecation found in rural areas. Only 36 percent of the population report that they wash their hands after defecation. As a result, contamination remains widespread in Angola, with frequent cholera outbreaks and a high level of deaths in children under age five caused by caused by diarrhoeal diseases – the vast majority of these caused by poor sanitation and hygiene [4]. The good news is that this can be improved and lives can be saved.

Andrex®, the UK’s leading toilet tissue brand, is partnering with UNICEF, the world’s leading children’s organisation, to help tackle the sanitation problem in Angola. The Andrex® and UNICEF partnership is funding a Community Led Total Sanitation programme in Angola that provides knowledge and resources for children and their families about the importance of sanitation and helps them build their own clean, safe toilets. With knowledge and resources, communities are empowered to develop their own clean and safe toilets stopping the spread of dangerous, often fatal disease and also providing people with dignity and respect

Edson Monteiro, Water and Sanitation Officer for UNICEF engages with the Waleca Village on issues of hygiene and sanitation during the Andrex® and UNICEF field trip, May 2016. Photo credit: Slingshot Media

Tom Berry, head of sustainability for EMEA at Kimberly-Clark commented:

“Every child deserves a safe and clean toilet. Lack of basic sanitation affects people’s dignity and escalates the spread of life-threatening diseases that can be fatal to children and their families. My recent trip to Angola highlighted how people are positively affected by partnerships like this. In the three-year partnership, Andrex® and UNICEF are aiming to raise £600,000 and impact over 180,000 lives in Angola.”

Victorina Tchinhngala, 13 years old from Waleca, an open defecation free village washes her hands outside their latrine during the Andrex® and UNICEF field trip, May 2016 demonstrating how Andrex® funding into safe sanitation is impacting the lives of children and families in Angola. Photo credit: Slingshot Media

SOCIAL GOOD

September 15, 2016September 19, 2016

— 28 Comments

The Bicycle as a vehicle of global change

“I’ve seen some of the highest performance bicycles in the world, but I believe the most powerful bicycle is the one in the hands of a girl fighting for her education, or a mother striving to feed her family.” – F.K. Day, Founder of World Bicycle Relief

It is hard to believe that something as simple as a bicycle can be a vehicle of dramatic change, enabling people to go to the market to sell their products and for children to go to school. As a tool for development, a simple bicycle can mean not just transportation but employment—even access to education and healthcare. Bicycles can change people’s lives and lift them out of poverty. Yet access to bicycles can prove daunting especially for people living in the developing world.

For many people in the developing world, walking is their primary mode of transportation. Add the challenge of distance and seemingly simple tasks of going to school, visiting the clinic, or delivering goods to market become difficult and sometimes impossible. With no choice but to walk, meeting everyday needs is a struggle against time and fatigue.

Mobilizing people through the power of the bicycle is the mantra behind the non-profit organization World Bicycle Relief who designs, manufactures and distributes high quality bicycles that withstand the challenging terrain and conditions in rural communities. Entrepreneurs use the bikes to increase productivity and profits. Students with bikes attend class more regularly and academic performance dramatically improves. And, health care workers with bikes visit more patients, more often, providing better, more consistent care.

World Bicycle Relief also promotes local economies and long-term sustainability by assembling bicycles in Africa and training over 1,200 field mechanics. Since 2005, World Bicycle Relief has delivered over 300,000 bicycles and is making an enormous impact in people’s lives.

Ethel, a student in Zambia, begins her nine kilometer ride to school. Before receiving her Buffalo Bicycle from World Bicycle Relief, it took Ethel 2 hours to walk to school. After doing chores for several hours at home and then walking to school, she often arrived tired and had to take a nap during class. Now, she arrives on time and ready to learn. Ethel aspires to become a nurse and give back to her community.

All photos credited to World Bicycle Relief

Ethel lives with her aunt, uncle and cousins and often rides her cousin to school on the back of her bicycle. The rear rack on the Buffalo Bicycle is designed to carry 220 lbs and can accommodate more than one person. Ethel and her cousin are on a track to graduate from high school on time. Photo credit: World Bicycle Relief

And now…

World Bicycle Relief’s 2012 Education Report highlighted a 28% increase in attendance and a 59% increase in academic performance for students with Buffalo Bicycles. Through BEEP (Bicycles for Educational Empowerment), World Bicycle Relief has delivered over 90,000 bicycles.

On July 11, 2016, World Bicycle Relief presented the Trailblazer Award to Dr. Leszek Sibilski, former Olympic cyclist, global development thought leader and advocate for bicycles. The annual Trailblazer Award honors an individual who has challenged conventional thinking around the complex issues of poverty, social justice and access while illuminating a new path forward with innovative and bold ideas that have the power to transform millions of lives. Dr. Sibilski has done just that with his tireless work promoting the bicycle as a tool of great change for people around the world.

Dr. Leszek Sibilski received the Trailblazer Award presented by World Bicycle Relief. Dr. Sibilski is joined onstage by Dave Neiswander, President of World Bicycle Relief.

Dr. Leszek Sibilski addresses the audience at the Trailblazer Award ceremony on how the bicycle can be a powerful agent of change and lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and into shared prosperity.

Here are some of the words that Dr. Sibilski shared with the audience while accepting the Trailblazer Award:

Global Non-Profit Organizations and Social Good Enterprises SOCIAL GOOD

June 21, 2016October 3, 2017

— 9 Comments

Kurandza: One woman’s quest to #FeedMozambique

Meet Elisabetta Colabianchi, Founder of Kurandza, a non-profit social enterprise that invests in the future of women in Mozambique. I have featured her work and organization before on my blog and include their products under my Gifts that Give Back Guide. Kurandza uses education, entrepreneurship and sustainable development programs to help create opportunity and change for women and their communities. A devastating two-year drought in Mozambique has caused widespread hunger inspiring Elisabetta to shift gears and focus on hunger relief. Here is her heartwarming story.

Percina and Elisabetta. Photo credit: Nicole Anderson of Sorella Muse Photography

Percina and Elisabetta, two wonderful friends who met in a village in Mozambique while Elisabetta was a Peace Corps volunteer. Photo credit: Nicole Anderson of Sorella Muse Photography

“Kurandza: To Love”: Written by Elisabetta Colabianchi, Founder and Designer, Kurandza

I’d known there was a hunger crisis in Mozambique, but what really got to me was hearing that HIV positive mothers were faced with choosing between letting their children starve or nursing their children past the recommended time despite the risk of passing on HIV.

Prior to founding my non-profit organization, Kurandza, which means “to love” in the local Changana language, I lived in Mozambique as a Peace Corps volunteer for three years. While there, I worked at a rural hospital counseling mothers on the prevention of HIV transmission to their babies, and had successfully prevented the transmission to hundreds of children.

At first, I thought that maybe the mothers who continued to nurse despite the risk were doing this because they forgot their training. Or I thought perhaps I hadn’t taught them very well after all.

But when I counseled one of these mothers over the phone last month from my home, now living thousands of miles away in California, I realized she knew exactly what she was doing, and that it hurt her to do so. She knew that by continuing to nurse her child past the recommended time, she was putting her baby at risk to contract HIV. She knew that when a child contracts the HIV virus, it often leads to mortality.

Food Security Gifts that Give Back Global Issues Global Non-Profit Organizations and Social Good Enterprises SOCIAL GOOD

May 4, 2016May 5, 2016

— 25 Comments

The inspiring story behind Anchal Project

ANCHAL /ON-CHAL/ NOUN

(1). The decorative edge of a sari used to provide comfort and protect to loved ones. (2). A Shelter.

I first learned about Anchal Project a few years ago from a fellow social good blogger who lives in Louisville, Kentucky where Anchal Project is based. After looking at their beautiful website and learning about their philanthropic model, I bought my first scarf and fell in love with the beauty and exquisiteness of their unique products and the story behind each scarf. I have been promoting their products on my Gifts that Give Back page for years and finally this week I had the opportunity to speak with co-founder and CEO Colleen Clines about the inspiration behind Anchal Project and what she has done to help women escape poverty and prostitution in India. Little did I know, her own personal story was equally as inspiring and powerful as her work heading Anchal Project. Here is the story.

Colleen meeting with the women of Anchal.

Gifts that Give Back SOCIAL GOOD

April 11, 2016April 12, 2016

— 8 Comments

WO Design: Creating Change for Widows and Orphans in Ethiopia

“There are 4.5 million orphans in Ethiopia. What if we each helped them in a small, tangible way? The total effort would be substantial.” – Josh Allen, founder of WO Design.

It was during a life-changing service trip to Ethiopia in the fall of 2012 that Josh Allen, a young dad from Bozeman, Montana, was exposed firsthand to the hardship faced by widows and orphans in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Josh went to Ethiopia as a delegate with the Global Leadership Summit and was introduced to various non-profit organizations around Addis Ababa, the nation’s capital. He spent a day with Bring Love In, a non-profit organization that helps to provide orphans and widows with a loving, stable home. Josh was instantly moved by the program and the amazing success they had in giving both unwanted orphans and widows a second chance at life and love.

He returned home to Montana driven to make a difference and help support the orphans and widows he met at Bring Love In. Already a successful retailer Dee-O-Gee and developer of dog toys, Josh found a way to bring his expertise and desire to help orphans and widows together by the creation of his company, WO Design (which stands for Widows and Orphans Design).

In the fall of 2014, Josh launched WO Design with his first product, the WO Bone, that is made in his hometown of Bozeman, Montana. For each dog toy purchased, two meals are provided to widows and orphans at Bring Love In in Ethiopia. Nine months later, he added another product, the WO Disc and by the end of 2015, over 5,000 meals have been provided to widows and orphans at Bring Love In.

WO Bone

WO Disc

WO Disc comes in a variety of colors

Gifts that Give Back SOCIAL GOOD

March 24, 2016October 3, 2017

— 6 Comments

Humanity Unified International launches first fundraiser to help Rwandan Women

Do you ever feel like the connections we make in life sometimes seems like fate? The more I work in this tiny niche of social good travel bloggers, the more amazed I am by the incredible friendships and network I’ve made online. I’ve met countless inspiring bloggers and humanitarians online through blogging and social media. One such person is Maria Russo, founder of the award-wining online media platform for travel and social good, The Culture-ist and the non-profit Humanity Unified International. It all happened because I follow her on Instagram where I noticed the amazing photographs her organization was posting on women and girls in Rwanda.

A young girl in Rwanda. Photo by Arielle Lozada

I commented on the photos and began a relationship online that resulted in an interview and a post on her and her husband Anthony’s work as the founders of Humanity Unified and Humanity Unified International. I was instantly drawn to Maria and Anthony’s passion for making the world a better place by starting at the grassroots level by improving the lives of women and girls in Rwanda.

The more I work in social good and advocacy, the more I understand how these kinds of programs work. It is a proven that investing in women makes a tremendous amount of sense and investing wisely in programs that provide training, education, health and sustainable agricultural practices is even better. Women invest 90% of their income back into their families while men invest approximately 30 percent (UNAC).

On a personal level, like everyone I am bombarded with requests for donations every day thus I choose my charities wisely. It is a arduous task since I would love to donate to every single cause I write about or hear but obviously I have to pick and choose which causes are most important to me. I donate locally to help our schools and families living in poverty, and I also donate quite a bit abroad.

The more I travel and witness the impact of poverty on women and girls and the additional barriers they face in creating a better life, the more I desire to give them opportunities to create a better one. I also prefer to create sustainable change, not just a band-aid approach that won’t fix the problem. This is why I love the work that Humanity Unified is doing so much. 100% of my investment will go towards empowering women and creating sustainable change.

I will never meet the woman who I am supporting but in my heart I will know that far away, in Rwanda my donation has helped change her life. That is an incredible feeling! Whether it be vaccines for a child in Nigeria, a clean birth kit for $20 for an expectant mom in Laos or $100 to provide training for a woman in Rwanda, I’ve made a difference.

Even using my words to spread awareness by writing this post has helped and that is free.

Photo by Arnelle Lozada

This week, Humanity Unified International launched their first fundraiser on Generosity by Indiegogo to develop funding for their project in Rwanda. Here are some details on the campaign and how you can help.

Gifts that Give Back Global Issues Global Non-Profit Organizations and Social Good Enterprises SOCIAL GOOD Women and Girls