Purpose Shop
“Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” This saying has truth behind it, but we feel it should not be used as an excuse to withhold support – there is value in your children eating for a day if you are watching them starve. However, there is clearly great value in supporting small business ventures that provide employment and help people learn skills that help them eat for a lifetime. The links below will lead you to opportunities to help both for a day and for a lifetime with your everyday purchases.
The KnownToMe Online Coffee Store is NOW OPEN!
http://www.justlovecoffee.com/KnownToMe
Shop here for great coffees. A portion of each purchase goes to the development of the Ludlati Carepoint!!
BeadforLife eradicates extreme poverty by creating bridges of understanding between impoverished Africans and concerned world citizens. Ugandan women turn colorful recycled paper into beautiful bead jewelry, and people who care open their hearts, homes and communities to buy and sell the beads.
www.tenthousandvillages.com/
(they also have a store in downtown Champaign, IL)
At Ten Thousand Villages, we work with over 130 artisan groups in more than 38 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to bring you fair trade jewelry, home décor, gifts, and more. As one of the world’s oldest and largest fair trade organizations, we build long-term relationships with artisans that are based on mutual understanding and respect. Fair trade enables artisans to earn a fair wage and provides the opportunity for a better quality of life.
www.icafrica.com/microcredit-wo.html
At ICAfrica, we know that it is extremely important to find an efficient method of making micro loans available to impoverished and struggling enterprising women in Africa. Thousands of these resilient women require boosts in the form of small cash injections to grow their super-micro businesses. There are not many employers around and these ventures are the main sources of their family livelihoods. In most of the communities, women do not qualify for any kind of loan due to several reasons. Our Micro Credit program is changing all that. Women with bright ideas and no money can come to us for seed money. The average amount we offer is $100 - $250 per entrepreneurs per year, on an annual revolving bases. The interest rate is 2%. The loans will help the ventures to grow rapidly, improve the quality of lives of recipients and their families, and permanently transform the benefiting local communities.
Saint’s Coffee is a small-batch, micro-roaster offering specialty blends and unique varietals of 100% Fair Trade Certified™ and organic coffees. But beyond being the freshest, finest, and fairest of them all—Saint’s Coffee is transforming the lives of orphaned children by investing over 1/3rd of net profits from every sale into organizations helping children.
Tom’s Shoes
www.tomsshoes.com/
In 2006 an American traveler, Blake Mycoskie, befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by caring TOMS customers. Since our beginning, TOMS has given over 140,000* pairs of shoes to children in need through the One for One model. Because of your support, TOMS plans to give over 300,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world in 2009. Our ongoing community events and Shoe Drop Tours allow TOMS supporters and enthusiasts to be part of our One for One movement. Join us.
Wild Olive Tees
www.wildolivetees.com/about-us/
Our current Give It! charity is Love Without Boundaries, a worldwide group of volunteers dedicated to improving the lives of orphaned and impoverished children in China. We at Wild Olive have a similar passion for caring for the orphan and, cumulatively, our families have been blessed by a total of 9 children adopted from China. Love Without Boundaries began in 2003, after a group of adoptive parents realized that people united by a pure love for impoverished children truly can make a difference.
