When I began Eco Child’s Play over a year and a half ago, I pledged to make Kiva loans on behalf of our blog. After making several Kiva loans, I’ve decided it is time to donate to and highlight different organizations helping families and/or the environment around the world. This month, I have made a donation to Women for Women International on behalf of Eco Child’s Play.

Women for Women International helps women move from “victim to survivor…to active citizen”:

Women for Women International mobilizes women to change their lives by bringing a holistic approach to addressing the unique needs of women in conflict and post-conflict environments.

We begin by working with women who may have lost everything in conflict and often have nowhere else to turn. Participation in our one-year program launches women on a journey from victim to survivor to active citizen. We identify services to support graduates of the program as they continue to strive for greater social, economic and political participation in their communities.

As each woman engages in a multi-phase process of recovery and rehabilitation, she opens a window of opportunity presented by the end of conflict to help improve the rights, freedoms and status of women in her country. As women who go through our program assume leadership positions in their villages, actively participate in the reconstruction of their communities, build civil society, start businesses, train other women and serve as role models, they become active citizens who can help to establish lasting peace and stability.

Related posts on Eco Child’s Play donations:

• Empower Children with Charity Donation Choices
  

• Our First Kiva Loan from Eco Child’s Play

• Our Second Eco Child’s Play Kiva Loan

• Another Eco Child’s Play Kiva Loan

“Women farmers today are reinventing the face of organic agriculture,” explains Denise O’Brien, executive director of the Women in Food and Agriculture Network. “They’re focused on raising healthy food for their community and often sell their products through farmers’ markets or community supported agriculture initiatives.” Young women, such as Zoë Bradbury in Oregon, are ditching traditional career paths early on to go for their dreams of being a farmer and contributing to creating a local, healthy food system. Or these women may run diversified farm-based businesses, such as Marguerite Ramlow who runs Artha Sustainable Living Center from her farm in Wisconsin, conducting organic gardening, yoga, renewable energy and sustainable living workshops on-site.

Why this trend of women launching farm and food based businesses? A couple perspectives to chew on:

• No Glass Ceiling — Just Open Fields of Possibility

No matter how you slice it, various barriers and glass ceilings still exist for women in today’s traditional, corporate structure. That explains why women have been starting businesses at twice the national average rate for years. The growth of farming and farm-based businesses takes this independent, entrepreneurial idea to an even larger playing field as one can control even more of the business inputs and outputs by being in a rural setting. Don’t like being dependent on foreign oil? Put up a wind turbine and other renewable energy systems, like we did on our Wisconsin farm and B&B, Inn Serendipity.

• Bring the Kids Along

Farm businesses blend opportunity to involve kids in daily activities and responsibilities. From helping with animal and barn chores to getting ready for the farmers’ market, farms provides various ways to integrate and spend time with one’s children in an engaging, educational setting. Making change for customers at your market stand blows away any math text book when it comes to real-life experience. Our six-year old son, Liam, is in charge of gathering wood and prepping the evening campfire site we share with our B&B guests.

• Soul-Satisfying Work

Contributing to a healthier food system, fostering a healthier planet, leaving a better world for our children. Farms offers women a creative palette to bring one’s values to life on a daily basis, harvesting a satisfaction I know my former career life stranded in a cubicle working for someone else would never bring.

As if cooking, cleaning, and child-rearing were not enough, the women of Santa Fe also lead a powerful organization, the Santa Fe Women’s Group, which fulfills many vital roles for the community. One of the group’s biggest projects has been producing biogas.

The Project

The Santa Fe Biogas project, in its initial stages, was simply a concern communicated in Women’s Group meetings: “How can we avoid buying expensive tanks of gas and inhaling smoke in the kitchen?”

Several women in the group had heard of farmers who use biogas as a remedy for both problems. Biogas made from biodigesters, tanks that process manure to make biogas (largely methane), converts manure from a hazardous environmental waste into a valuable, energy-rich fertilizer.

Then, the Women’s Group learned about the UN Women’s Group Grant, which would cover most of the expenses of a project to supply a biodigester. The women quickly organized themselves to start learning about biodigester construction and maintenance with the help of the local Agriculture Ministry.

When they won the grant, the women swelled with pride because another group of women from the United Nations thought their project worthy of funding. This motivated them to carry out the project to the best of their ability. They organized the purchase and delivery of all the materials necessary to build the biodigesters. Each of the families that received materials built their own biodigesters with the expertise gained from the sessions with the Agriculture Ministry that the Women’s Group organized. At the project’s completion, all 16 biodigesters were built, offering energy independence to the rural families.

The Results

Aside from the obvious results of economizing in the household and dealing with environmental problems like stagnant manure, deforestation, and smoke inhalation, the project was perhaps most impactful because of the confidence it instilled in the Santa Fe Women’s Group. The Women’s Group has since started wetlands conservation and rainforest conservation projects as well as a tree nursery, which provides native tree species for local farmers to help restore and protect their natural environment.

It will be interesting to see where Santa Fe goes from here. One thing is for certain—development in the community depends on the productive contributions of both its men and its women.

About the Author: Thomas Carmona was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Santa Fe de Guatuso from 2005-2007. He is a current Entrepreneurship MBA student at the University of Wisconsin.

Photo: Flickr

Can women make the world a greener and a better place with their purses? Diane MacEachern believes they do and she wrote a great book Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power To Create a Cleaner, Greener World, which is a call-to-action for women to use their power as buyers (women spend 85 percent of every dollar in the marketplace) to make a difference.

MacEachern’s message is simple but revolutionary: if women harness the “power of their purse” and intentionally shift their spending money to commodities that have the greatest environmental benefit, they can create a cleaner, greener world.

We covered the book few weeks ago, and since I was fascinated with the simple but yet powerful message of the book, I wanted to learn a little bit more about it from the author itself and interviewed Diane MacEachern. I know that not all of you see green consumerism as the best way to fight global warming and achieve sustainability, but Diane makes a very good case here in explaining how realistic and powerful option it is. you are welcome to read and judge for yourself. The book was published last Thursday, February 28.

To those of you who don’t know her, Diane is a bestselling environmental writer, sought-after public speaker, and founder of http://www.biggreenpurse.com. She has advised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, World Bank, World Wildlife Fund, and many other agencies and nonprofit organizations focused on protecting the planet. The author of the bestselling Save Our Planet: 750 Everyday Ways You Can Help Clean Up the Earth, she lives in the Washington, D.C., suburbs in the energy-efficient home that she helped design and build more than twenty years ago.

What brought you to write the Big Green Purse?

Environmentalists were trying to protect the planet by passing new legislation and enforcing existing laws and regulations. But especially under the current administration, we were getting nowhere. On the other hand, the marketplace - which we were trying to regulate through policy - was responding at breakneck speed to what consumers were demanding. It seemed to make sense to focus on increasing consumer demand for responsibly made products and services as a way to force manufacturers to be more responsible.

Also, getting consumers to demand products that are certified sustainable seemed like the fastest way to get manufacturers to pursue sustainable production processes. It was a way of beating the “greenwashing” that otherwise dupes consumers and lets manufacturers profit from green marketing without being truly green themselves.

The book tries to show how women can change the world through smart and green shopping. Shouldn’t we focus on trying to influence decision makers and companies? Isn’t political activism a better way to achieve results?

It’s not either or. Sure, let’s pass strong laws whenever we can. Let’s enforce the laws and regulations already on the books. But let’s empower consumers, too, especially in areas like personal care products where the laws already on the books just don’t do enough to protect people. Besides, look at the track record. Under the current administration, no major environmental legislation has passed. Some wilderness has been protected, but no where near what’s under siege. The new fuel efficiency standards that Congress approved don’t go nearly far enough in helping Americans achieve energy independence.

On the other hand, during the same time period, green manufacturing has taken off. Thanks to choices consumers are making in the marketplace, companies are producing packages in bulk to save energy and reduce waste. They’re innovating to develop more fuel efficient appliances. They creating toxin-free cosmetics. None of these developments would have occurred without consumer demand.

Just in the area of personal care products like shampoo and make-up, consider this. The Toxic Substances Control Act actually permits companies to use over 65,000 chemicals that could create health and environmental hazards. Even with new laws, all those chemicals will be allowed to continue to exist. You and I can protect ourselves from those dangers based on how we shop. And if all shoppers avoid them, companies will be less likely to use them. That makes sense to me.

We see that markets for green products such as organic food or hybrid cars are growing fast, but their market share is still very small. How much green consumerism can really make a difference?

The tipping point in the marketplace is actually pretty small. At some point, and some point soon, companies will decide it just doesn’t make sense any more to squander their capital - and their company’s good name — on products that are bad for the planet. Plus, look at how much innovation is happening in the marketplace simply because consumers have created demand for green products. That innovation will have an enormous ripple effect throughout manufacturing.

Your book is full with information that will make anyone who reads it very concerned about the environmental and health impacts of almost everything we do on daily basis. Yet, I also find it optimistic - where is this optimism coming from? Can you share with us a specific experience that helped to generate your optimism?

I’m generally a “cup is half-full” kind of person! But also, I’m really thrilled with how much innovation is happening in the marketplace, how short the turnaround time is between increased consumer demand and manufacturer response, and by how many millions of people have taken the environmental crisis to heart and vowed to do something, anything, to help protect the planet.

There are critics who see in green consumerism no more than just a way for consumers to feel better about themselves with no real added-value, as they see consumerism in itself as the problem. What do you think of it?

I talk to thousands of consumers every year. Many people are actually tormented by the dilemmas shopping poses. They need to feed and clothe their families, they need to drive to work every day, and they understand that all of these actions have an environmental impact. It does make them feel great when they can buy the product with the least impact - and there’s nothing wrong with people feeling good for doing the right thing!

I’ve never come across anyone who says, “I just can’t wait to spend more money.” Most people are trying to economize. But they still need to live. The critics should be encouraging responsible green consumerism. They should also realize that, at least until the political reality changes, green consumers are going to be the most powerful force for change, especially change aimed at manufacturing.

The book is full of great tips in many areas, from clothing and cosmetics to furniture and transportation - if someone who wants to start their journey towards sustainable living is reading your book - would you recommend her to focus on one or two areas or try to make changes in each and every one of these areas?

Most people start with a single step. What makes sense for someone depends on their lifestyle, their means, and their comfort level. Probably the most important step to take is to figure out when you can reduce energy. Can you install a programmable thermostat to use less energy to heat and cool your home? Can you plug your computer and other office equipment into a powerstrip to avoid wasting energy when electronics aren’t even being used? Can you drive a more fuel efficient vehicle, and drive it to save gas? Alternatively, can you carpool or take mass transit a couple days a week? Start with one step; it will lead you to others.

What’s the most interesting thing you have learned through the work on the book?

There is green innovation happening in every sector of society, and in every industry. We face tremendous opportunities to make our money matter by taking advantage of what’s before our very eyes. And the more we do so, the more opportunities we’ll create.

How about men? Aren’t we expected to take part in the creation of a greener world?

Absolutely! Every man, woman and child can and should participate in creating a greener world. No one has the corner on the market when it comes to using whatever skills, knowledge and resources they have to protect the planet — and themselves.

Can you tell us about the “One in a Million” pledge?

The One in a Million campaign urges consumers to pledge to shift $1,000 of money they’re already spending on products and services that offer the greatest environmental benefit. If you’re already spending $1,000 a year, you can join, too. The idea is to continue to give momentum to the creation of a truly green marketplace, as well as making it easy for consumers to participate in that marketplace by shifting money they’d be spending anyway on household products. Consumers can shift money in any category, but the campaign recommends some specifics for consideration, like food, coffee, appliances, and so on.

The green markets are evolving very fast. How you intend to keep the information in the book updated?

The website will be an invaluable tool for keeping information updated. I hear constantly from readers and companies about new developments, which enhances the research I do myself. I welcome feedback, suggestions, ideas, and input.

What’s next? What your next book will be about?

I’m very interested in the impact China is having, not just on our own environment (through the China-made products we buy), but globally. If we really are a small planet, we have to help China clean up its “neighborhood” just as much as we focus on our own.

Thank you Diane! As I mentioned, the book in now available, and printed on acid-free recycled paper. For further and updated information, please visit http://www.biggreenpurse.com.

There are many benefits of exercise during pregnancy, including improved physical conditioning, strength, flexibility, and stamina. It builds endurance for labor and delivery and a quicker postnatal recovery. By exercising regularly, you may be able to reduce some of the common discomforts of pregnancy such as backache, swelling, and constipation. Most of all, you feel great about yourself when you exercise.

How Exercise Can Help More Than Medication

Let’s take a look at the effects of exercise versus medications for two of the most important complications of pregnancy.

Gestational Diabetes

As many as one in eight women will develop gestational diabetes sometime during their pregnancies, increasing health risks for themselves and their babies. Researchers at the University of Southern California School of Medicine studied a group of women who had already developed gestational diabetes and who had fasting blood glucose levels high enough to require insulin. Half of the women in the study received the recommended insulin. The other half got personal trainers instead. The trainers supervised the women while they did simple twenty-minute stints on exercise bikes. The results were startling: moderate aerobic exercise was equally effective to insulin! Blood glucose levels were statistically the same in both groups.

If exercise can be a prescription-strength way to control gestational diabetes that has already developed, how much better to be active throughout pregnancy and perhaps prevent the problem in the first place. Insulin costs in the United States are staggering. The state Medicaid programs alone pay $500 million a year just for the drug. The indirect costs of diabetes are huge. Exercise is a green approach to health care.

Preeclampsia

A complication of a pregnancy in which blood pressure increases and blood flow to the baby decreases. The only effective treatment for preeclampsia is to deliver the baby, so it contributes to the growing epidemic (and resource cost) of preterm deliveries. Again, regular brisk walking or other moderate physical activity begun during pregnancy significantly lowers the risk of preeclampsia. The benefit is even greater if the exercise is begun before pregnancy. As thankful as I am for neonatal intensive care units, they also represent one of the most intense uses of resources in health care. A walk in the park is a much greener way to deal with preeclampsia, when possible.

Prenatal Yoga

Yoga is one of the oldest physical practices in existence. Yoga balances mind and body, work and relaxation. Through movement, posture, relaxation, meditation, and intentional breathing, yoga aims to bring a healthy, lively, flexible approach to life. With its emphasis on harmony and balance, it is a beautiful metaphor for raising baby green.

Two recent studies compared an hour of prenatal yoga daily to an hour of brisk walking daily. One of the studies looked just at women with uncomplicated pregnancies. In this study, those who were randomly assigned to the yoga group were significantly more likely to have an ideal weight baby, significantly less likely to have preterm labor, and significantly less likely to develop hypertension than the women who exercised an hour a day by walking.

The other similar study looked at women with complicated pregnancies, who had already been diagnosed with abnormal blood flow through the umbilical and uterine arteries. These women were at increased risk of delivering babies that were too small. Again, those randomly assigned to the yoga group were significantly more likely to have a normal weight baby than those who walked for the same amount of time.

If you are interested in a home guide to yoga before and after having a baby, I like Anna Getty’s Guide to Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga, a DVD boxed set that is great for both beginners and for seasoned practitioners. As with any exercise, you can overdo it with yoga. Be careful not to strain yourself, and have your instructor check to be sure you’re doing it the best way for you.

The Green Exercise Standard

I agree with the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology in recommending 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day, or at least on most days. We all know that this is a good idea, but having a baby is a fantastic time to make this resolution stick. Talk with your pregnancy health care team before embarking on your activity plan. Some exercise is wonderful. Too much, or the wrong kind, is not.

And some pregnant women should not exercise or should exercise in an even gentler way.But for most women, exercise during pregnancy is a wonderful benefit, giving you stronger muscles, denser bones, healthier joints, and less chance of urinary incontinence. And exercise also wards off the baby blues or postpartum depression.

Dr. Alan Greene, author of Raising Baby Green, is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of California San Francisco. In addition to being the founder of www.DrGreene.com, he is the Chief Medical Officer of A.D.A.M., and the Pediatric Expert for WebMD. He is the Chair Elect of The Organic Center and on the Advisory Board of Healthy Child Healthy World. Dr. Greene appears frequently on TV, radio, websites, and in print including appearances on The Today Show, Fox and Friends, The Wall Street Journal, Parents Magazine, and US Weekly. Dr. Greene is a practicing pediatrician at Stanford University’s Packard Children’s Hospital.

If having a gift-free holiday is not something your family would go for, why not get them something sustainable? Just by looking through the eco-links collection on my website, one can easily see that there are cornucopia of green stores to choose from. For the next two months, I'll be featuring some of the freshest shopping destinations the world wide web has to offer, helping you get to the bottom of that twice-checked list faster than ever.

Trying to decide who to feature in my first Green Shopping Spotlight was a darn tough decision, but the answer came to me in a snap, or an e-mail as it were. Two days ago, I got a delightful message from Jennifer, half of the two-woman team that started Max and Zane, the other half being April. I'd never heard of the online outlet before so I quickly clicked on over to see what the scoop was, and boy (or girl, haha) was I in for a treat!

Greenloop is one woman's creative endeavor in market based environmental activism. The mission is simple: Green Life. Green Style. At Greenloop, the alignment of style and sustainability, of aesthetics and ethics, provide all of us with the opportunity to look good, feel good, and do good. All of the goods at Greenloop are made by conscientious companies who are committed to environmental stewardship and social responsibility. Greenloop is committed to supporting the development of environmentally responsible, renewable energy and to stopping global warming. To this end, we purchase Green Tags for each order placed making each shopping experience even greener.

Featuring one of the widest variety of green fashion and beauty collections, Greenloop has been a key factor in the progress and availability of the sustainable lifestyle. A proud member of Co-op America and 1% For The Planet, Greenloop carries a wide variety of brands, all of which feature one or more of the following eco-friendly elements:

As a recently-established brand, they first focused on making sweatshop-free t-shirts (printed with water-based inks), but will soon be offering their popular styles on organic cotton, furthering their commitment to bettering the planet. By signing up for the company's e-mail newsletter, you are entered into a monthly drawing to win a free Wisdom Tee.

Founded in 1992, Maggie's Organics has been one of the pioneers in the organic clothing industry, and has won awards from Co-op America, the Organic Trade Association, the Natural Products Expo, and more. Originally started as a marketing company for organic tortilla chips, it was suggested that adding cotton to crop rotation would help produce better corn for chips. Of course, once the cotton crop was picked, someone had to sell it.

Now offering clothing for newborns to 6 year-olds, all of the colors in Kate Quinn's line are inspired by specific elements of nature, which is reflected in their names, such as sunshine, peacock, and green apple. "I wanted to create a line that encompassed all the wishes and dreams of new parents: the softest, most natural materials to surround your baby, the highest quality design and construction, and most importantly, the hope of a cleaner, kinder earth," says Kate Quinn on the company's website.

Though still illegal to grow in the United States, we are the purchaser of over 60% of the internationally available industrial hemp, mostly for grown in Europe and recently Canada. Based on a quiet island in British Columbia, Rawganique is one of the most diverse online stores featuring hemp products.

We are 100% committed to the environment. We believe that hemp clothes & footwear, and other hemp products, raw veganism, sunshine, pure air, pure water, positive thoughts, and ahimsa awareness can transform the world and make it a safer, happier, and better place for us and our children to live in. We aim to do all we can to help make hemp and raw veganism mainstream, so that the world's economy thrives on sustainability and renewal rather than terrorism, fear, and depletion. Rawganique.com was created with love to make sure we're doing the best we can to stop disintegration and to build trust, peace, love, and health for all, one ever-widening circle at a time.

Our mission is to maintain the essential nature of life by providing exceptional apparel that promotes healthy lifestyles while preserving the environment for future generations. We recognize the need to balance quality and eco-conscious living. This is why our company designs and manufactures stylish organic clothing using certified organic or eco-friendly fabrics and sources according to Fair Trade standards.

We've all been schooled on the benefits of organic cotton, but eco-friendly denim is still often quite pricey, usually ranging from $150-350 a pair. Hailing from Seattle, Certified Jeans sells organic cotton, made in the USA jeans for a humble $74-88 a pair, depending on the wash chosen. Enjoy trying before you buy? You won't find this brand in the shopping malls: according to the company's website, "Suburban shopping malls are a primary generator [of] residential and commercial sprawl and often are responsible for losses of wetlands, natural habitat and agricultural land. And, these malls are unattractive commercial development."

Tarma is a company that designs, manufactures and sells unique, high quality, personal art that celebrates the spirit of adventure and a love of the outdoors. Guiding our enterprise is a commitment to meaningful social and environmental issues. We understand that everyone’s journey is exquisitely their own. Our personal art provides those who invest in it with a visual representation of their life’s journey and a demonstration of commonly shared values. For the Tarma family, our guideposts reflect our most closely held hopes, dreams and intentions. Our belief is that businesses have a social and ethical responsibility. We will strive to live by our guideposts, to do our part, and set a good example for others to follow. Social and environmental issues are at the forefront of public concern. Our goal is to deliver creative products that we 'adventurists' enjoy backed by an environmental and socially responsible company.

Working as a Chinese medicine practitioner and a roofing company founder, Natalia and Adam didn't have much experience with the clothing industry, but that didn't stop them from wanting to make a difference. "We differentiated our product just by being different, and that was enough. I experienced the pleasure of taking market share from well established outfits by doing nothing more complicated than trying to treat everyone the way I would want to be treated. And I began to wonder if this notion could have broader applications. Bienestar International is my answer to that question," says Adam, the company's President and CEO.

Not only are they dedicated to using organic cotton for all of their items, their foreign factories all run on strict fair trade principles and seek to benefit the local community of which they are a part . "We take responsibility. We don’t like to turn a blind eye on things. Our clothes are not made by children or in unfair working conditions. Sure, we might pay a little more but it’s what we believe in and it’s what we want to do. And it’s not just in the factory either. The good thing about organic farming our way is that the farmers and pickers are not exposed to harmful chemicals in the field."

"I think perhaps the most unique thing about our business is that it was envisioned, designed, and created specifically to solve a social and environmental need," says Mike Korchinsky, Founder and CEO of Wildlife Works. Recently launching the brand in the UK with a unique website, Wildlife Works has been a success here in the States since Mike started the San Francisco-based brand in 2001.