Charity Highlight: The Feed Foundation

1 billion people on our planet are hungry.

1 billion people are overweight.

Do you see the issue here? The Feed Foundation does. The organization was founded in July 2008 by Ellen Gustafson and Lauren Bush, and they hope to bring awareness and raise funds in three primary areas: food security (accessibility to safe and nutritious food), school feeding (providing healthy school meals for children), and healthy food around the world. They won me over when I realized that they not only want to provide food for developing countries, but also here in the United States in areas of desperate need.

The Feed Foundation has two initiatives- The 30 Project and the Hungry in America Project. The 30 Project's mission is to bring radical change in the food system- from our perceptions of the system, the way food is produced, to its unfair and uneven distribution. The Hungry in America Project is a social campaign to bring light to the immense problem of hunger in the United States, in conjunction with President Obama's pledge to end childhood hunger by 2015.

Lucky, FEED has created a simple, and fashionable (my favorite!) way to support- FEED Bags.

I have my eye on these:

FEED / READ 3 BAG - perfect for bringing home those new reads from the library

FEED DOP BAG - awesome makeup bag for weekend trips

FEED 2 BAG - the ultimate carry-all for school and work

Definitely lusting after these bags, and eager to invest in The Feed Foundation as soon as I get my next paycheck. You can also find FEED Guatemala bags online & in stores, as well as FEED USA bags in Gap stores nationwide.

Support The Feed Foundation through facebook and twitter !

photo credits: The Feed Foundation

The world is a mess.

AGREE l DISAGREE

free?

Need a quick study break? Waiting for the last few minutes of your work day to be over? Spend that time wisely: donate free rice. That's one more reason to feel accomplished today!

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Charity Highlight: Fashion Fights Poverty

I guess I haven't introduced myself thoroughly- I am a fashion-lover. I am an avid blog-reader and online shopper. Fashion shows during New York Fashion Week give me a thrill like no other. Of course, I find these two visions quite conflicting (hence, the blog name!) How could I be so sucked into consumerism when I claim to care so much about the glaring poverty we face today?

I created this blog in an attempt to prove to myself (and others) that fashion CAN promote awareness for global issues, and not only that, but provide sustainable development efforts.

Here's my first step: the discovery of FFP, or Fashion Fights Poverty.

This non-profit was created by three founders, Michael Dumlao, Kadrieka Maiden, and Sylvie Luanghy (whose backgrounds and passions are alarmingly similar to mine). They wanted to answer these two questions:

"What is the role of the multi-billion dollar fashion industry in addressing global issues such as poverty, the environment and worker's empowerment?" and "Is it possible to be ethical about one's fashion choices without sacrificing style?"

I couldn't have phrased them any better. Through awareness workshops, an annual eco fashion charity, clothing swaps, auctions, and promotion of socially aware fashion brands, FFP continues to fight poverty around the globe.

My favorite initiative? Empowering and educating future artisans in impoverished countries by providing the resources they need.

Show your support!

Attend an event, follow them on twitter, be friends with them on myspace, and 'like' them on facebook

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Invisible People

I just read an article on Love146's blog about the marginalized, forgotten, and the invisible. Certain stories here in the United States are blown completely out of proportion- the arrest of Lindsay Lohan, the affair of Tiger Woods, or even the escape of lions from a local museum. Meanwhile, millions of people elsewhere are suffering.

I just came back from a two-week volunteer trip with Koinonia Collaborative in Venezuela. We stayed at a local church, El Senor es Nuestra Victoria in Maracaibo. The sights I saw and the people I met will never be forgotten. The urbanized downtown looks like any other city in the world. But take a right turn off the highway, drive about 3 minutes, make another turn, and you will find yourself in a completely new environment.

Dirt roads, houses made of trash, barbed wire and broken bottles set on cement walls to protect the family from whatever was outside. I soon learned that there were also internal tragedies that I couldn't tell by the mere exterior. Drugs, alcohol, prostitution, abuse, bestiality.

Children grow up watching their parents have sex- they don't realize the consequences of such actions. When they are teenagers, they experiment with sex (both with other humans and with animals), and when they realize that it's not fulfilling, they try prostitution. When this isn't enough, they turn to drugs and alcohol. Employment is out of question. So begins the downward spiral of their lives.

And yet, no one has heard of El Museo or Los Altos Tres, two villages I visited in Maracaibo. In fact, millions of villages, towns, and cities exist like this all around the world. It's time that we start reporting and sharing important news. It's time that we start putting faces on these invisible children, women, and men, and bringing them into the light.

quick link - hunger in nigeria

watch

"sex trafficking world cup south africa"

That phrase yields about 83,600 results in 0.21 seconds in a Google search. Then why is it that so few have heard 'sex trafficking' and 'world cup' used in the same sentence?

International sporting events (including the Olympics and the World Cup) have a direct correlation to the amount of human trafficking that occurs in the area. The 2010 South Africa World Cup brings excitement, national pride, tourists from around the world, and along with all of these, sex slaves.

It is estimated that 100,000 women and children have been/will be trafficked, sold forcibly into sexual acts and slave-like labor during this year's world cup. It is difficult for the government and other agencies to intervene because no comprehensive legislation on human trafficking exists in the country.

Perhaps the most dangerous factor is uncertainty. We don't know about this phenomenon. We don't know where these brothels are. We don't know where the young girls are taken from, and we don't know how to stop the traffickers.

Start by spreading the world- eradicating the silence that surrounds this issue.

Dual vision challenge: Tell two people throughout this week about the sex trafficking that has and will occur due to this year's World Cup.

Read up- Links about South Africa's sex trafficking:
New America Media
Time Magazine
ESPN News
The Daily Beast
Change.org

Links about human trafficking:
STOP
Love 146
Restore NYC

human trafficking: the illegal trading of humans and exploiting them sexually or through forced labor; modern-day slavery

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