Throughout the pages of The Succulent Wife, you will see numerous articles about companies and products that contribute to making this planet a better place to live on. Whether it is about helping the environment or about helping each other, we are always passionate about sharing their stories.

Thus, this Gift Guide is near and dear to us. The ideas shared here show us that we can all be conscious shoppers, make our gift recipient happy and, all at the same time, also greatly impact the life of someone less fortunate. It becomes a win-win for everyone. And it’s so easy [...]

Anne-Marie and Audrey van Petegem met Robin Smalley, Director and Co-Founder of mothers2mothers, at BlogHer 2011 in the Johnson&Johnson room. She shared stories of the women and the babies that mothers2mothers helps, the role that Johnson&Johnson plays in financially supporting global health issues and the bright future for women with HIV and their children. The energy, passion and dedication that Robin has towards these women and their babies is nothing short of being heroic. She found her true calling after she left the high profile world of being an award-winning television director/producer for shows such as Entertainment Tonight, Lifestyles of [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Have you noticed recently that there seems to be a lot of men sporting new mustaches? There is a reason for this. By now, we are well aware that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month (we wrote about it last month). This month is Movember (mo is slang for mustache) where globally, men are growing mustaches to raise awareness and funds for men’s health issues such as prostate cancer.
My brother-in-law Brian had prostate cancer and supports the cause of early detection through PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) screening (he is always asking my husband, Scott, what his [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
I know that I’ve mentioned that my mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor. I know how passionate she is about the fight to end cancer, because even as a very, very private person, she is very open about being a 6th year breast cancer survivor, she wears lots of pink and supports cancer research in a multitude of ways.
So, when I found out about Save the ta-tas Pink Hair Project,

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
We love to support companies that do great work here and abroad. By now, we are all now quite familiar with (and wearing) Toms Shoes and we love the great work the company does around the world (Did you know that Toms does eyewear now, under the same One-for-One principle).  In fact, we wrote about them three years ago already. Here are some other shoe companies that also do great work in their own way, whether it is helping the environment, fighting poverty or helping women.
 
For the Young Ones
Chooze Shoes – Here are some perfect [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
We all have heard of sites like Groupon, LivingSocial and the myriad of similar deal-of-the-day shopping sites, but have you heard of Philanthroper? Instead of selling you a deal, they share with you a new non-profit organization everyday. If you like the “deal”, simply donate $1.00. That’s right and you can, in fact, only donate $1.00. Their feeling is that if you only spend $1.00 today you will come back tomorrow and do the same for another non-profit organization. Philanthroper takes no percentage of the sales (that is why you see advertisement space on their [...]

“Experience the sensation of buying a girl… her life back”. That’s the baiting, provocative but so very clever intro of the Girl Store website, effective at demonstrating how a girl child in India can be “bought back” from the perils of being sold for marriage, sex slavery, labor slavery or terrorism.
The Girl Store, run by Nanhi Kali, an Indian national girl child sponsorship program, provides girls with academic support to get them in school and to stop the cycle where girls from impoverished families are often sold into marriage or sex slavery.
In the store, one is able to sponsor the [...]

BloggersUnite, in conjunction with WaterAidAmerica and megree.com, has invited bloggers to spread the word about the condition of water in developing countries: 4000 children die each day due to illnesses from lack of clean drinking water.

Clean water is essential for life but 1 in 8 of the world’s population doesn’t have access to it. WaterAid is looking to raise awareness about the need for clean water in developing countries, to convey the message that sanitation is a critical sector in human development outcomes.
Diarrheal diseases caused by poor sanitation and unsafe water kill more children than AIDS, malaria and [...]

This film is not out yet, but look for it to be released this fall. It’s one of those really “important” films, like Food, Inc. and an Inconvenient Truth (same filmmaker Davis Guggenheim) “Waiting for Superman” is one of those must-see movies. Through real-life children’s stories, this documentary tells us how the U.S. school system, once the best in the world, is now utterly failing our kids – to the point of calling the schools “drop-out factories” and “academic sinkholes”. Still, it seems that the documentary offers hope as Guggenheim explores alternative, innovative approaches that could revive the system.
The current [...]

What’s your most, most favorite boutique, shop, restaurant? I bet that it’s locally owned by an individual, not a corporation (if you are here, reading us, I’m confident that this is a correct assumption and that you are not about to answer Ann Taylor or Olive Garden!).
Think about what makes shopping or dining in that favorite place so special. The service? The atmosphere? The unique selections? That they know your name or will order something especially for you?
When I lived in Orange County and Las Vegas, shopping independent small stores was really difficult. The large shopping mall and strip mall [...]