UNICEF – Every year my mother would buy UNICEF Christmas cards as a way of supporting all their global efforts. UNICEF has changed a great deal since then. They now also offer a beautiful array of gifts such as as this Genuine Pearl Necklace ($48.00), this Men’s Alpaca Scarf ($40.00), Children’s Gifts and unique Christmas Ornaments ($22.00). See their entire line of beautiful gift ideas here. In addition, companies, such as, Disney, Gucci, and IKEA are also doing their part to end preventable childhood deaths and have partnered with UNICEF this holiday season. Check out their gifts here.
	Fair Trade USA – When something as simple as the purchase of a chocolate bar, a bag of coffee or a bar of soap can send a child to school or bring clean water to a village for the first time, why would we even look at buying these products anywhere else? Fair Trade USA is making a difference in the lives of farmers and workers around the world. Shop here for great gift ideas and here for the people that are hard to buy for.
	Sustainable Kids – Buy an item (or two) from Sustainable Kids and it will arrive in a gift box which then can be filled with items such as, toothbrushes, tooth paste, flip flops, books and so on, for kids in Haiti. The box is postage-paid, so once it is filled just drop it in the mail. This is a great way to teach our children the importance of giving back.  Shop here.
	Prosperity Candles – We mention this organization in last year’s Fair Trade Gift Guide, but they are worth mentioning again. Prosperity Candles has expanded from just candles to candle accessories and gift baskets. Buy a gift and change a women’s life who has been displaced by war, political unrest or natural disasters.

And, here are some other companies that we love to support as they endeavor to each make a difference in the lives of people in need:

Laga Bags – Each bag is unique and hand sewn by Tsunami Survivors in Indonesia.
SchoolBagforKids – With every school bag purchase, another school bag with supplies goes to a child in need.
SittingTallerKids – With every purchase is one step closer to ending human trafficking.

Need more ideas? Take a look at last’s year’s gift guide titled “Impossible-to-buy-for Gift Guide“. In it, we mention organizations such GlobalGirlfriend.com (liberate a girl from a lifetime of servitude), Kiva, and Heifer International, all of which work at improving our world in their own way.

It does not take much to make this planet a better place. So, what did you buy?

By Robin Smalley, Director and Co-Founder of mothers2mothers

I’m a mom of two daughters, now both in college. I’m embarrassed to say that throughout the years we’ve all-too-often taken turns whining, “That’s not fair!” But it wasn’t until I gave up my television career, and moved my family halfway around the world to South Africa in 2004 to begin an organization called mothers2mothers, that I realized what unfair truly means.

Did you know there are more babies born with HIV per year in a single African clinic than in the U.S. and Europe combined? Most people assume that if a mother is HIV-positive, she’s going to infect her unborn child. But that’s simply not true. There are tests and drugs that can be given to mothers to  prevent them from infecting their babies and to stay healthy themselves. All these sick babies, all these heart-broken mothers, dealing with something that is entirely preventable. Why?

The fact is, most medical systems in Africa are broken. There are very few doctors and everything is run by nurses that are overwhelmed, overstressed and underpaid. There isn’t a moment for care or support or education. I’ll give you an example. Here in the U.S. where we have a nursing “shortage,” we have 256 doctors and 937 nurses for every 100,000 people. In Mozambique there are 3 doctors and 21 nurses for every 100,000.

Coupled with terrible stigma and discrimination over HIV and you have a situation where a young pregnant woman, full of joy over the new life growing inside her, tests positive for HIV and there is no one in the clinic to tell her that she can prevent transmission of the virus to her unborn baby. And so she leaves the clinic, never to return again, returning home in fear and isolation, with a death sentence that she is terrified to share.

mothers2mothers provides a simple solution to a complex problem, employing and training mothers living with HIV to work alongside doctors and nurses, bringing critical information and support to pregnant women and new HIV-positive mothers. These “Mentor Mothers” educate, support, and empower women with HIV to keep themselves and their children healthy, forming trusting relationships within frightening, unfamiliar health care systems.

So now picture the above scenario…a young woman comes in. She may have walked miles from her cardboard shack where she has no plumbing or electricity. She may not have eaten that day. Now she finds she is HIV-positive. And just when her life goes dark, immediately a Mentor Mother is there to hold her hand and put her arm around her and say “You’re not alone. I’m HIV-positive too, and my baby was born negative. It can be the same for you.” She is taken to the mothers2mothers room, and she is surrounded by women just like her. And there she can learn everything she needs to make healthy choices for herself and her baby. She can learn about the medical interventions available, about her feeding options, reproductive health, family planning, nutrition. Her Mentor Mother can support her as she rounds up her courage to disclose her status to her partner and family, often risking beatings or being outcast. And she is there to celebrate with her when her baby tests negative.

We pay our Mentor Mothers. Now that may not seem earth-shattering to most of us, but in Africa where women are accustomed to being treated as if they have no value, it is a game-changer. The simple fact of getting paid transforms Mentor Mothers into role models in their townships and villages and helps them turn around stigma one mother at a time.

I have been blessed to see this miracle happen over and over again. This month mothers2mothers is celebrating its tenth anniversary. We began with a few credit cards, operating out of a car in Cape Town. Today we have almost 700 sites in eight countries. And we employ over 1700 HIV-positive mothers. They are reaching 1 in every 5 pregnant women living with HIV in the world.

It’s been an incredibly rewarding journey for me, an ex-television director who never could have imagined finding my passion on the other side of the world. But the really exciting part begins now. Because we are one of the partners in UNAIDS’ Global Plan to Eliminate New Infections of HIV by 2015 and keep mothers alive. Yes, you read right…we can eliminate pediatric AIDS in the next three years! We, one mother at a time, can support the mothers who need our help so desperately. What a legacy we can leave our children…a generation free of HIV/AIDS!

I look at my beautiful girls and I still see the babies they were. I can imagine how I would have felt if I felt responsible for passing on a death sentence. I know that, only by the luck of birth, my daughters were born in a top-notch American hospital. They have been raised free from the scepter of death and despair. Together, we can give that gift to other mothers and children. Please join me at mothers2mothers and see the many ways you can help.

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 PSA is). Although the PSA screening is controversial because sometimes prostate cancer can be very slow to grow to cause any sort of life threatening problems and that sometimes unnecessary surgery is performed that can cause incontinence and sexual dysfunction. The bottom line is, like with breast cancer, that early detection is critical for increasing the survival rate of prostate cancer.

Like over a million other men (and women) world wide, Brian is helping raise awareness during Movember.

Started in Australia by a group of men in 1999, Movember now has an international website where Mo Bros (men growing mustaches) and Mo Sistas (Women who support the men in their lives who are growing mustaches) seek out sponsors for their Mo-growing efforts.

Just as women sported pink hair during Breast Cancer Awareness month, men wear their efforts on their faces. At the end of the month these men either throw their own party or attend one of the infamous Gala Parties Partés  held around the world. Last year over $80 million were raised globally. Will you be a part of the Mo-vement this year?

Go to Movember to see how you can get involved.

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, it seemed like a fun way to do my part to show my support – literally.

You can too! If you are on Facebook (and even if you are not), getting pink hair is a great way to SHOW that you support Breast Cancer Research by making a donation (from .99 cents to $100.00) to help fight cancer. It’s not really pink hair, but just a photo effect, so you can fully commit to the cause without committing to the hair color.

Simply go to Save the ta-tas, upload a picture of yourself, make a donation in the amount of your choice and, within 48 hours, they will send the picture back with you sporting pink hair. You will then have a new profile picture for Facebook or your other favorite social media channel.

Let’s see how many pink rinses we can get on Facebook and let’s save our ta-tas!

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 back-to-school shoes (up to size 5) that will not only give your child a great, comfortable and fun pair of shoes for school but also helps fight poverty. Like LittleMissMatched Socks, Chooze Shoes’ left shoe is slightly different than the right one. When my son was younger, he always wore different colored shoe laces in his running shoes. My young daughters always mismatch their flip flops. I love seeing their sense of individuality and creativity and how they express it with what they wear. These shoes naturally allow children to think outside the (shoe) box and be individuals. Plus they are 100% free of any animal byproduct and made with colorful cotton fabrics. I love them!  And just as important, if not more so, at the end of every year the company invests 100 % of its profits in anti-poverty programs, in the form of small business loans to women to help them emerge from extreme poverty. Chooze Shoes believes in “a hand-up rather than a hand-out.”  To check out their complete line of adorable boys and girls shoes go to their website Choozeshoes.com where you can purchase a pair for $48.00.

For Women

Sseko Sandals – These sandals are a modern, simplified version of the Gladiator sandal. They have unique interchangeable design in over 30 different designs and colors. The company was started by a young journalism graduate student who went to Uganda to work for, and share the story of a non-profit organization. What happened next was her discovering a school, Cornerstone Leadership Academy and seeing the gifted young women who graduated from the secondary school unable to finance their university tuition because of lack of job opportunities. Sseko Designs was created to help these women, by providing them with a fair wage so they can afford to go onto university. In addition to their salary, Sseko Designs provides housing, training programs and will match their savings by 100%. Once the women are in university, they have a much easier time finding employment, however they still have an option to continue with Sseko for the duration of the three year studies on a part-time basis. Once graduated, women are then recruited to more career specific positions within the company (such as accounting and management). But now, let’s focus on the beautiful and comfortable (I am all about comfort)  sandals are made by Sseko: visit the Sseko Designs website and check out all the different looks you can have with just one pair of sandals for $49.00.

For Men and Women

Oats Shoes – This Dutch company, is helping the world in a whole new way. Made from hemp and cotton, these running shoes are completely bio-degradable. Even the plastic soles have been tested to break down within six months once buried. But wait, there is more…! Bury them in your garden and after regular watering watch a beautiful bouquet of flowers bloom from your old shoes. That said, these durable sneakers will last as long as other sneakers with normal wear and tear. To order your own pair of shoes that bloom go to OatShoes for approximately $200.00.

Amazon Flip Flops – Made in Brazil, these flip flops are constructed from recycled tires. And because they are made from old tires, they last longer than flipflops. After wearing them for a few days, these flip flops will start to mold into the shape of your feet. So far, Amazon has recycled over 800,000 tires which have been taken out of landfills, lakes and rivers. Talk about reducing your carbon footprint and taking it to a whole new level! To order a pair of these eco-friendly flip flops go to Wave Tribe for $29.95.

Jojo Shoes – Also from Brazil and made of natural cotton, these shoes help both the environment and humankind by planting trees and installing water pumps in Africa. Jojo has partnered with Tree Nation to help with reforestation to help produce fruit, medicine and food for locals and to decelerate erosion of the soil. The Water Project and Jojo helps build water pumps to bring clean drinkable water and sustain agriculture in communities. When you purchase a pair of Jojo you can choose which project you would like to support and keep checking back to see how it is progressing. Go to Jojo to choose your shoe, act by deciding which project you want to support and check back to see the progress. Retails for approximately $100.00.

Each of these companies was started by people who had a vision and the desire to make a difference. Their sense of style brings that vision to fruition with fun, stylish, comfortable shoes. With that, it is easy for us to now do our part. If you know of other “shoes with a cause” companies, let us know. We would love to mention them too.

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 site), leaving your whole dollar to go directly to the organization. Plus, they pay the featured organizations within a week.

Philanthroper is always looking for non profit organizations to feature. If you know of an exceptional group that is doing good, especially one that is new and growing, then email them here tips@philanthroper.com. When they identify a group that interests them, they look at the individual business practices by checking the tax forms before contacting them to be featured on their site. Although this is a new site, here are some of the non profit organizations that they have already raised money for: FAIR Fund, Paint Your Heart Out, and See TURTLES.

To see the featured daily non profit organizations sign up here or “like” them on Facebook.

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 supplies that allow an underprivileged girl in India to go to school and get an education.  I bought Padma, age 7, her set of books and was thrilled to see the site immediately updated with an “off to school” message on her photo.  This tiny gesture was such a feel-good.

You too can make a difference in a girl’s life right now by either buying school supplies or by making a $65 donation which sponsors a girl for a full year of school. Completely worth it.

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 measles combined, while in Africa diarrhea is now the biggest killer of under-fives according to a recent study in The Lancet. Some 4000 children dies needlessly every single day.

These are avoidable deaths; we have known their cause and the means to reduce them for generations. Watching children die who we can help to flourish is simply unacceptable.

Beyond the direct impact on health, WaterAid reports that lack of sanitation severely impacts other areas of human development. Children sick with diarrhea miss days on end from school, girls drop out of class because of a lack of sanitary facilities, while repeated illness stunts intellectual development. People chronically sick with diarrhea and other diseases related to unsafe sanitation and water are unable to work, while large proportions of health budgets are spent trying to treat these preventable illnesses, diminishing the economic prosperity of developing countries.  (Source)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Having lived part of my childhood in the D.R. Congo, a cause like this one is close to my heart. My son, who recently visited the Congo reported on the abysmal sanitary conditions. See his blog, The Congo Condition, which was written as part of his Senior Project. Seeing living conditions in other parts of the world changed his life.

What’s the point of this post? To raise awareness bien sûr. The lack of clean water is a very fixable problem. Let’s help eradicate it.  WaterAid is undertaking projects to enable communities to set up and manage water and sanitation systems in 17 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific region

So please, SPREAD THE WORD (share this post), GET INVOLVED or SUPPORT.

Cheers!

The current statistics are appalling: among 30 developed countries, the U.S. is ranked 25th in math and 21st in science. For a nation whose global leadership position is already under threat, there is no excuse, no more time to waste. We need to prepare our kids to compete in the global economy. We need to awaken everyone to the crisis. We need to make our politicians – who keep making promises to reform the school system but never deliver – accountable.

In the meanwhile, as we “wait” for things to improve, there are some things we can do immediately. First, commit tosee the film in theaters: for each pledge, 5 books will be given to schools in need. As the number of people who have pledged increases, sponsors also step in to offer various donations, like Office Max who will offer school supplies to teachers. Sweet.

Visit the website to find out other ways to take action, such as by getting involved in your school community, by giving books, by becoming a mentor or by writing a statement of support… among some ideas.

Spread the word! Go see the film and talk about it. Here’s the trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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 spaces (practically the only type of retail space available) dominated the landscape and offered prohibitive rents that prevented any small shopkeeper from ever considering them. So, shopping choices in such regions were limited to chains, chains and more cookie-cutter chains. I had tried to encourage the few and far between independent shops but they’d often closed down before I could even become “a regular”.

I admit, there is definitely a place, in all our consumption, for Big Box (read Target, mainly). But, as a protagonist for independent business, the scene described above – where this is an almost total absence of independent business – was slowly and surely lobotomizing me by eliminating any semblance of individuality in my shopping, dining and cultural (this part for a whole other discussion) options. Thankfully, things are quite a bit different here in the Greater Chicago area where I live now, and boy does it rejuvenate my spirit. Plenty of small, charming, organic neighborhoods with creative and inspiring choices for shopping, dining, browsing…

Independent businesses and small stores are a precious commodity, a cherished piece of our heritage that is unfortunately under constant threat, battling for survival and they need our support.

There is a movement under way and I want you to join. Whether as a merchant or as a shopper, please join. Well, actually, there are several movements, but all with the same purpose: to shop locally, shop in your neighborhood and shop small stores. It doesn’t matter exactly what they are called. All it takes on your part is a conscious decision to shop small stores in your area.

To me, this quote found on the American Independent Business Alliance website describes so well the rising lament of the same-old-same-old and the yearning for independent:

When in the course of human events, it becomes appropriate for communities to assert their independence, to denounce uniformity and celebrate their uniqueness, a respect for freedom and human creativity requires independent businesses and peoples to declare those elements which make them interesting.

I spoke with Rachel Hershinow, the owner of the very charming Stella boutique in Evanston and the instigator of the Shop Small Store campaign in her Central Street, Evanston neighborhood. For her, this is a Pay-it-Forward and empowering movement that will help preserve and even rejuvenate independent neighborhood shopping districts. And, if you’re not so sensitive to the actual charm and quaintness of these neighborhoods, the numbers will get the point across: For every $100 spent when shopping locally, $68 stays in the community as opposed to $43 with Big Box and, of course $0 with online shopping. That 25% difference is huge to support the community that you live in…

Besides, there are so many reasons to want to shop indie:

• Small stores display hand-picked merchandise, where every item is chosen by the store owner with the sole purpose to serve and delight its customers.  Small stores offer personality, diversity and creative offerings.
• The shopkeepers make their decisions to respond uniquely to the community’s needs and wants. And customer service is all-important. That’s their real competitive edge. It’s a hands-on approach, by someone who cares about the shop and its customers. It’s not the corporate chain store where the manager must follow the generic guidelines.
• Shopping at small stores keeps them in business (thriving would be the goal) and preserves the charm of the neighborhood by keeping stores open, instead of posted with “for lease” signs.
• The small store offer that small town feeling, where it could possibly be a “where everybody knows your name” place.
• The value provided by local business might not always be in dollars… Local shopping districts offer a sense of local community and local charm that the uniformity of the regional & national chains is eroding.
• Often-times small stores can be more convenient and soooooooooo more much satisfying: I was shopping for a hostess gift and two other gifts a couple of weeks ago. It took me less time to stop by three shops on Central St. than it would have to drive the 5 miles to visit Big Box, find the right department, find someone to help me (does anyone even ever work there anymore? I never see a soul), get it gift-wrapped. Exhausting. Instead, on Central Street in Evanston, I found charming and totally unique gifts, I was privileged to have cheery conversations with the shop-keepers and walked out of the stores with gift items that felt more like prizes that I’d just scored. Satisfying indeed.
• It’s the real, the original, the true social networking way of connecting. Meet the people in your neighborhood, chat with the shopkeepers… That’s real life.

Small retailers, through their sense of creativity and entrepreneurship, are important influencers of our cultural and social fabric and leading forces in the retail industry and in the local economy. I encourage you to shop local indie in your own community – so easy to stroll and discover the neighborhood a beautiful summer day. Also keep this in mind with your travels over the summer: to encourage the delightful independent stores that you will encounter along the way.

The goal of the Shop Small Stores movement is to bring the awareness nationwide. And, I think that we can do more than “preserve” our neighborhood shopping districts. How about having them flourish?

I’m counting on you!