In Chad, hope comes from the sun
What can protect women from attack, protect dwindling forests and create income for refugees?
It’s not a riddle. It’s a summary of the benefits of the Solar Cooker Project.
Today, thousands of Sudanese fleeing the genocide in Darfur are living in refugee camps in Chad. While the camps are relatively safe, once outside the protected area, Janjaweed from Sudan and local men threaten violence.
Women and girls are responsible for finding firewood. Overharvesting and drought mean they must go ever farther to find wood — increasing their vulnerability to rape and savagery.
Solar cookers are relatively simple tools made of cardboard and foil. They capture the sun’s warmth — bringing water to 100 degrees Centrigrade. That’s more than hot enough to sterilize water and prevent disease. They also can help women cook the traditional foods for the region, like rice, macaroni, porridge, millet, tea and meat.
According to Jewish World Watch, sponsor of the Solar Cooker Project, two solar cookers can save one ton of wood each year.
To introduce solar cookers into the camps, the organization starts with camp elders — to help them understand the program’s benefits and develop their support. Once the elders are in favor, they work together to develop a manufacturing plant within the camp. Female refugees receive training in assembling the cookers, providing an income source for their families.
Eventually, everyone in the camp gets training in solar cooking, and the organization sets up maintenance and replacement programs.
To see and hear how solar cooking makes a difference, watch this short video on the Solar Cooking Project site.
So far, all the families in two refugee camps — totaling about 50,000 people — have received solar cookers. Jewish World Watch adopted a third camp in February of this year and currently is training 800 women each month in the use of these cookers.
But there’s a long way to go. Chad is home to nine more refugee camps, and the organization’s goal is to provide solar cookers for all the residents in all the camps.
It’s hard to imagine a more practical, low-cost solution to so many serious problems than this amazing project. A contribution of $30 buys two solar cookers. An entire manufacturing plant only costs $50,000.
Ready to help? Visit the Web site to make a contribution. And pass these links on to your friends.
In Chad, hope comes from the sun.
Schools Make Money and Make a Difference with Fair Trade Fundraising
By Ashley Symons, Equal Exchange
I went to elementary school in the Midwest in the early ‘90s. Every fall, we entered the school gymnasium to get pumped up for our annual fundraiser. This kick-off event was meant to energize us to sell, with lures of all the prizes we could win if we sold the most candy bars, tubs of popcorn, or wrapping paper.
The philosophy was, “the more you sell, the more you’ll win random stuff you really don’t need!” Never did we talk about how what we were selling might impact people or places. Just get the most money, and you too could win a neon-pink kazoo keychain. Woo-hoo!
Fifteen years later, I’m so pleased to be a worker-owner at Equal Exchange, where we offer schools a different kind of fundraising. My co-worker, Virginia Berman, started the Equal Exchange Fundraising Program after getting requests from teachers and parents who wanted an alternative fundraiser. After three years, we’ve partnered with over 300 groups. And the momentum continues to grow every day.
So, what’s special about this fundraiser? Well, for one it offers totally yummy fairly traded and organic coffee, tea, chocolate, nuts and dried fruit. It’s stuff that people already eat and drink, so it doesn’t feel wasteful like typical fundraisers.
Plus, it’s fairly traded, so you can feel good knowing your fundraising dollars are supporting small-scale farmer co-ops and their communities. Additionally, the products are organic. The farmers use sustainable farming methods, without all those nasty pesticides and fertilizers. It’s better for them, it’s better for you and your kids, and it’s better for our earth.
Equal Exchange also developed a Fair Trade and co-op economics curriculum to accompany the fundraising program, to teach children that their everyday choices can make a difference in the lives of others (it’s free to download on our web site). We really believe that change is on the horizon – and we need the help of future generations to make sure we are supporting farmers internationally, while also making efforts toward greening this planet of ours.
The bottom line? Your school fundraiser can make a difference worldwide while raising money for your own community. Sounds way better than a neon-pink kazoo keychain, if you ask me.
To find out more about the Equal Exchange Fundraising Program, please visit www.equalexchange.coop/fundraiser
Chocolate Walks
From the tree to the taste buds
Savina Darzes is dedicated to education.
As a former park interpreter and currently a Scientist in Residence with the West Linn/Wilsonville School District, she loves to show and tell, especially when she can do it outside.
She also likes good food. So when she went on a culinary walk through Portland several years ago, she got the idea for her perfect career: giving chocolate walks. Today, she escorts groups of 10 through some of the Portland area’s most walkable neighborhoods: The Pearl; Downtown Portland; and Lake Oswego, highlighting chocolate treats and the fascinating folks who come up with these creations.
Savina’s business, Chocolate Tasting And More, focuses on tastings, tours and education. On Friday and Saturday, Sept. 4 and 5, she’ll be preparing to celebrate International Chocolate Day with demonstrations and information about chocolate at Ten Thousand Villages, 938 NW Everett in the Pearl District. Her talks cover topics “from tree to taste buds.” Stop by the store from 1 to 5 p.m. when you’re on your way to or from Art in the Pearl.
“Portland is an amazing walking town,” Savina said, which makes her chocolate tours easy and accessible. She considers her walking tours as “a neighborhood search for all things chocolate.”
One of the highlights of a tour for Savina is introducing her customers to the bakers and cooks, as well as the business owners, behind the chocolate products. “I love to come away with a personal connection.”
She particularly likes surprising local residents with a new view of their familiar neighborhoods. “ I just love showing them something they haven’t seen before,” whether it’s a bakery they didn’t know about or a confection that takes chocolate to new delights (and caloric content).
Some highlights of the Portland chocolate scene? There are too many great ones to name. Savina’s tours often stop at Bernard Callebaut Chocolates on 5th Ave. in Lake Oswego; Verdun Chocolates in The Pearl (“it’s like walking into a jewelry store,”) and Pazzoria in downtown Portland.
For more information about tastings and tours, contact Savina through her Web site.
Urban Dreams
What a Portland thing to do: focus its annual luxury home showcase in a redeveloped portion of downtown Portland. The Metropolitan Homebuilders Association brought its home show to the Pearl District – where urban design, and land use and transportation planning have worked exceptionally to create a dynamic new neighborhood out of abandoned rail yards.
Ten Thousand Villages helped furnish this waterfront condo.
This year’s NW Natural Street of Dreams opens nine elegant condominiums in four buildings in Portland’s exciting Pearl District. Going urban, after decades of featuring sprawling suburban homes, the Street of Dreams is bringing its focus – and thousands of visitors – into the city.
The event, running through Aug. 30, not only shows off the condos, but it shows off the entire Pearl District. A pass to the show provides discounts with $6,500 for food and merchandise in Pearl District Stores. You’ll also have free transit on the Portland Streetcar and discounts on parking.
In keeping with the spirit of Portland, the Street of Dreams emphasizes local, as well as urban. Portland designers filled the showcase condos with local art and furnishings. One suite in the Waterfront Pearl features furniture and crafts from Ten Thousand Villages– fair trade meets fine living. Lotus Antiques, which shares space with Ten Thousand Villages, has furnishings in two of the showcase condos.
The Pearl District is the culmination of years of great urban ideas. Its pedestrian focus makes it easy and comfortable to walk from place to place. Its small-scale buildings and attention to design keep the streets interesting and safe. The buildings, shops and restaurants are unique and diverse.
Enjoy your visit to some of Portland’s most elegant living spaces, then take a tour of the Pearl. See how innovative partnerships can create community.
Three cups of coffee
By Kathleen Finn of Portland Roasting
In Papua New Guinea, we partner with the owners of the Madan Estate to increase the quality of life of growers and their communities. For this particular Farm Friendly Direct™ program, we are helping out with a Women’s Literacy project to satisfy enthusiastic req
uests for books and reading instruction from a community that experiences high levels of illiteracy. We are hoping you can help!
We are looking for children’s books for use in school and for adult women to use as their first learning books — primers, if you will. We will also welcome books for adults that are appropriate for beginner readers.
In the spirit of building community, we invite you — Portland Roasting customers — to join in our effort and help us collect books from your coffee drinking clientele. Our customer service staff will set you up with a handy collection box and literature regarding the program. Please contact Amanda at 503-236-7378, or email her here.
Individuals are welcome to drop books at our Portland Roasting offices at 340 SE 7th Avenue. A collection box awaits you in the foyer.
Help us turn others on to the joys of reading!