LiNK

In the mid-90s, over a million people died in North Korea, mostly from starvation. Hundreds of thousands were put in concentration camps. Very little has changed since then. People living in North Korea have no freedom of speech, religion, assembly and more. Every year, tens of thousands of refugees fled the country seeking food, protection and money. 

From this refugees, news about the humanitarian crises in North Korea has spread. 

LiNK stands for Liberation in North Korea, and works to continue spreading the awareness to college students. To do this, they send groups of LiNK members around the country, showing documentaries on North Korea and telling others how they can help. They act as advocates for the North Korean people who can't speak for themselves and meet with governments, non-government organizations and other institutions. They also work directly with refugees through shelters in China and Southeast Asia.

In addition to accepting volunteers and donations, LiNK also has a store where you can support their cause by buying t shirts, DVDs, accessories and more. Every item is designed to give you the opportunity to spread awareness of the crisis in North Korea.

Click here to shop the LiNK store, or learn more about the organization.

Feeding America

Usually, this blog focuses on buying products for yourself while supporting global charities. But with Christmas just around the corner, it's a good time to think about giving someone else a gift.

Feeding America is the country's largest, domestic hunger-relief charity that works to eradicate hunger in our own country. They aim to eradicate hunger in America through a network of food banks. Their program provides food to over 37 million Americans a year. Their 202 local member food banks around the country that are able to build relationships in their communities.

Besides from donating to Feeding America's food banks, you can also go online and give money to feed a family for a month, or give holiday dinners. You can also donate in honor of someone else. For a $90 donation, you could feed a family dinner for 9 months. Every dollar becomes 8 meals, turning this one-time gift into 720 meals.

Think about doing something different this holiday season. To browse the Feeding America gift catalogue, click here.

(RED)

Today is World AIDS Day, a time to be reminded of the worldwide devastation caused by HIV/AIDS. One way to combat the disease is through (RED), an organization that aims to eliminate AIDS. Hugh Jackman, Jane Lynch, Josh Groban and the guys from Coldplay are just a few of the celebrities who endorse and promote this organization.

 (RED) partners with some of the world’s most popular brands such as GAP, Apple, Nike, Starbucks and many more. These stores sell specific (RED) products, whether they’re shirts, iPods or coffee beans. Fifty percent of the profits from these products go to The Global Fund, which uses the money to finance HIV health programs in Africa. By buying a t shirt, the consumer is giving people in Ghana, Lesotho and other countries medicine to fight these voracious diseases.

The goal of (RED) is to foster an AIDS free generation by 2015.  Look for their products in stores near you, or click here to learn more.

The Rainforest Site

The Rainforest Site is an online store that sells handmade, fair trade or environmentally friendly products and donates proceeds to charities that work to save rain forests. They have everything from clothing and accessories, to home decor and even furniture.

Each product provides a description of the organization which makes it and how they provide for their employees. They even have a separate page for fair trade certified products.

The Rainforest Site claims that each item you buy preserves at least 1,145 square feet of rainforest land. 3% to 50% of the each item's retail price is set aside to give to the site's charity partners. They work with The Nature Conservancy, Rainforest Conservation Fund and World Land Trust-US. In the past six months alone, The Rainforest Site has helped to save over 250 million square feet of rainforest.

If you're interested in shopping there, you can find their store here.

FEED bags

FEED bags were created to do just that. Feed people.

The burlap and organic cotton messenger bags were originally designed by model and activist Lauren Bush, and raise awareness and funds for school feeding programs. The proceeds from FEED go to the United Nations’ World Food Program which distributes food to needy families, mostly concentrating in Africa.

FEED has been able to provide over 60 million school meals to children all around the world. They’ve also given money to UNICEF and raised money for their Vitamin A and micronutrient supplements program.

Buying one bag from their website can supply the micronutrients to a child for a year. They use environmentally friendly materials and fair-labor production.

Aside from bags, FEED also sells clothing and accessories at their website here.

HAPI

The women of Haiti need help. They need jobs. And HAPI exists to give them that.

HAPI, or Haitian Artisans for Peace International, is a fair trade artisan co-op. American workers with HAPI buy embroidered cards from Haitian women and sell them in American, providing safe, healthy and fare working conditions for the artisans. The marketing of the art supports women empowerment and economic development.

Many of the artists working for HAPI have no other form of income, as jobs are not readily available in Haiti, especially since bartering is a normal form of commerce.

The beautifully embroidered cards HAPI sells run about $7 each, and can also be bought in packs. Each card has a symbol or logo for the artist who created it. By going to HAPI’s website and clicking on your artisan’s logo, you can find their personal story and photos.

HAPI also supports other Haitian needs by investing in micro-loans of other entrepreneurs, giving to nutrition initiatives and investing in community programs.

You can buy their cards or learn more about HAPI here. 

Mend Bags

Mend bags are a product from Invisible Children, a non-profit organization that works to aid war-torn northern Uganda.

Invisible Children started as a documentary, showing how children in Uganda were victims and weapons in a civil war, being kidnapped and forced to become soldiers. They began selling products to raise awareness and send money to those in need.

Mend bags are made by women who were former abductees of the Lord's Resistance Army, a religious and military group in Sudan and Uganda known for rampant murder, abduction, mutilation and sexual enslavement.

You can buy a Mend bag and know the woman who made it was paid fairly. The name of the woman who created the is sewn into it. You can go online and see her profile, with photos and videos. It lets you connect to the fashion you consume. You can buy a bag at the Invisible Children store here.

Books for Africa

Books for Africa (BFA) has a simple mission: to end the book famine in Africa.

War, economic crises, and poverty plague many areas of Africa, and stop children from attending school and getting an education.  According to UNICEF, every third child in Sub-Saharan Africa alone doesn’t have the opportunity to go to school.

The children who are able to go to school often have to share textbooks with 10-20 other students, and most ever never owned a book of their own.

BFA believes educating the younger generation is one of the only ways to end the cycle of poverty in war in Africa. They supply boxes of books to rural libraries, orphanages, community centers and adult literacy programs.

One way they raise money for books (besides donations) is selling t shirts through Out of Print Clothing.  The shirts are printed with classic book covers like Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Catch-22 or other English class favorites.

The sale of one shirt sends one book to Africa through BFA. They have been donating 50 cents per every $28 shirt, which doesn’t seem like much, but the sales have already sponsored an entire shipment of books to Tanzania.

You can learn more about this organization or buy their products here.

The Generous Shopper

We vote for what kind of world we want every time we open our wallets. When we buy products that benefit charities or pay fair wages, we say we want to support that. But when we buy products made in sweatshops or with slave labor, we are saying those things are okay too.

Obviously, they aren’t.

It’s not that people want to willingly support these things; it’s just that they don’t know. Nobody’s telling consumers where their shirt was made, whether or not the person who sold it to them is being paid fairly or where their money goes after they bought it.

This blog will provide information necessary to turn an ordinary consumer into a generous shopper. It will highlight organizations that donate all proceeds from merchandise to support charities.

Who am I?

Well, I’m Emily. I’m a college student from Indiana. I love shopping and I love seeing how to change buying habits to make other people’s lives better. I’ll do all the research so you don’t have to. All you have to do is decide to use your wallet to make the world a better place.