Appreciate What You Have

Peace

Just days after announcing the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan, Obama accepts the Nobel Prize for Peace. I, like Obama agree that there are more deserving choices. I am terribly fond of Obama, however, the truth does hurt.

Obama in Art

Woodbourne Boys Christmas List

Still Good in December

Ecovolunteer

One Goal

Not YOUR Thanksgiving

I shall spend my five day weekend MY way. No more attending events which are in conflict with my morals with people with which I never have social intercourse.

...and it Was Still Good November

Food Not Bombs

Ogori Cafe

The Green Geek

End the Violence

End violence against women and girls!

"You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been,...

The concert was awesome! I gave away my third row seat to a stranger after friends upgraded me by $500 to a VIP section inside the spaceship. I was 12 feet away from Bono; four feet when the bridge moved above our heads! This was my fourth U2 concert.
This picture is of a mask issued at the concert for the audience to wear during Walk On. Portrayed is Aung San Suu Kyi; Burma's National League for Democracy, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and political prisoner. Suu Kyi won the 1990 election, however, the ruling military junta refuses to give up their power.

Retire The Misrepresentation of Native Peoples in the Sports Arena

Demockratees

I have no financial relationship with Demockrates.

...and it is still good

Pentago Adobt a Pet

Free Hug Campaign

Swapskill

Previous "Good" posts:
September 14, 2009,
July 12, 2009, and
May 14, 2009.

..and It Was Still Good: Bead for Life

Millie lives on $1 a day earned from crushing rocks in a quarry, and she has asthma. This is enough for one meal a day for her whole family. She lives in a 4ft. x 7ft. hut with her six children, two of which are AIDS orphans she has adopted. They have no water, no electricity, and no possessions. It is so small that one person is appointed to say when everyone should roll over at night. At least, that was how Millie was living. Now she has a small house of her own, financed by a brick-making business she runs. All this was made possible because she learned how to roll beads out of strips of recycled paper.

We have been deeply moved by the work of two friends of ours who went to Uganda, Africa. Dr. Charles was there to teach the local doctors how to use AIDS medicines. But before they left the US, he, his wife Torkin, daughter Devin, and friend Ginny sat together in prayer. “We said we were tired of talking about how hard the world is, and asked for something to do. This very clear intention was voiced within the context of prayer and sacred commitment,” Torkin told us. “We never dreamt it would be through paper beads!”

A few months later, Ginny and Devin joined Charles and Torkin in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. On a chance encounter in a Kampala slum, on their way to visit an AIDS patient, the women met Millie who was rolling paper beads but who told them that she had no market to sell them. They bought a few of her necklaces and, as they wore them, found that many people admired and wanted them. “So we went back to find this woman and discovered a group of her friends who also made beads. We bought about a 100 necklaces. We came back to the US for the summer and began to sell them to friends and at craft fairs.”

The beads began to generate interest, including a magazine article. Torkin and Ginny realized there was a market, but that most importantly it was about the story and the heartfelt desire to help those in need. One man, who loved the beads so much and wanted to give to the beaders, offered $200 for a necklace that was on sale for $20.

By September 2004 Torkin had returned to Africa and BeadForLife was born.

The women who become beaders all live in slums in Kampala. Many of them are HIV positive, malaria is rampant, and nearly all are raising, alongside their own children, other children they have adopted from some of the 1.4 million AIDS orphans in Uganda. At least 95% of the beaders are women and 40% are refugees, living as Millie did in huts with just enough room for them to lie down. All have multiple life challenges. As Torkin says, “It was very humbling to work with these people who struggle so deeply yet also know how to lift themselves up, to laugh, sing and have joy. In a song they wrote there is one line that remains in my heart: ‘We dance while we are suffering.’”

A beader who joins the BeadForLife program gets paid twice a month for their beads and they have to open a savings account. The program is 27 months long and the beaders all receive health care, optional family planning, and business training. By month 20, BeadForLife tops up their savings to $800, enough so that each one can begin their own business to support themselves after the bead-making program has finished. One woman, who used to wash prostitutes’ clothes in a nightclub, now owns a nightclub; there are restaurants, chicken farms, dry good stores, and clothing stores, all begun this way.

Beads can be bought online, but because of the power of the beaders stories, most beads are sold through BeadParties hosted in people’s own homes. This is how everyone can help. The host is sent a whole package of information with stories of the beaders, as well as African recipes, and 300 bead necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Many times two or three women do this together and it is really fun. There were 2000 bead parties last year; that is six or seven parties a day. And most importantly, the beads are beautiful — vibrant colors and different shapes and strings. The prices are low, $5 to $30 per item, so that everyone can afford to buy at least one item. Those dollars are immediately turned into income and food, medicine, school fees, and the hope that keeps them moving out of poverty.

BeadForLife has also been featured in Oprah’s ‘O’ Magazine and on NBC, with an overwhelming response. Get all the details at: www.BeadForLife.org

Let us hear from you. Do share with us your stories of getting out of poverty.
Getting Out of Poverty

Houston is Beautiful!

story by Warner Roberts

New Tricks

Yesterday, David had a book signing in Houston.

The Man Burns in 29 Days!

See Burning Man in my favorites.

"...and it was good " Also

Occasionally, I post links to organizations or individuals who IMO are socially conscious. This is my second post. The last post was "...and it was good"

Oxfam International

The Climate Project

All Michael Jackson Charities Web page created in 2002, BEFORE June 25, 2009

Network for Good

The Galveston Bay Foundation

RRFM Houston 2009 & REALLY Free

Really Really Free Market comes back to Houston, July 11 @ Watershed Studios, 4:00 - 8:00 p.m. 5703 Cornish, 77007 map
Speaking of "free" and frugality, the video below shows the belated Summer Solstice present I bought myself. It is an even better bargain, because I kept it for exactly 19 hours and then returned it. Yep! Money back. When I first saw it, I fell in love with it. After, I arrived home with it, it did not go with the two suits and three of the four pair of shoes I thought it would. The fourth pair of shoes are uncomfortable. Bye, Bye Tocsa Blu!

China Blue

Find Out Where Your Jeans Come From

"Right Relationship"

I have always refused to wear real diamonds or gold umtil I discovered Todd Reed's "ethically mined diamonds".

Love Now

"...and it was good."

Summerfield School

Southern Poverty Law Center

Product Red

One

Relief Beads for Darfur

Unitarian Universalist for the Ethical Treatment of Animals