Green Options

Today is Blog Action Day, and this year the focus is on poverty. Here are some ways you can help people in need, as you shop for your own needs:

Numbered above:

1. TOMS Shoes for Tomorrow, Giving Gifts to the Poor as You Shop: Starting from May 2006, TOMS Shoes for Tomorrow has given well over 10,000 pairs of shoes to children in Argentina and 50,000 pairs in South Africa through the purchases of caring customers. They’ve recently been nominated for the Cooper Hewitt People’s Design Award and they Need Your Vote! In 2008 TOMS plans to give 200, 000 pairs of shoes to children around the world. For each pair purchased, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need.
2. Give the Gift of Sight with KAYU’s New, Hot Line of Ethical Sunglasses: KAYU, a line of ecological and ethical sunglasses handcrafted from bamboo. By partnering with Unite for Sight, the organization is eliminating preventable blindness which is one of the world’s most urgent

Pictured here are images of gifts offered by Traidcraft, the UK’s leading fair trade organization with a mission to fight poverty through trade, practicing and “promoting approaches to trade that help poor people in developing countries transform their lives.” Traidcraft’s unique structure - a trading company and a development charity working together - gives them a unique how trade can be made to work for the poor. How is fair trade defined?

“Fair trade seeks to transform the lives of poor producers in the developing world by enabling them to use their skills and resources to trade their way out of poverty. It seeks to challenge injustices in trading structures and practices that so often lead to the exploitation and marginalisation of poor people.”

Pictured above from left to right: