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.

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

From the tree to the taste buds

Savina Darzes is dedicated to education.

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.

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 requests 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!

One of the things people have long admired about Portland is they way we do things – as well as what we do. It’s collaborative.

Well, maybe it’s too collaborative sometimes. Yep, it can take forever on occasion.

But compared to most cities, we make decisions with lots of information from the people who are most affected.

So when a man named Barry Childs wanted to make a difference in Africa, he did it the Portland way: he asked. According to the Africa Bridge Web site, he interviewed more than 70 people, including children and others living with HIV, as well as businesses, support organizations, educators, journalists and health care workers.

Today, Africa Bridge works with local organizations to address fundamental issues affecting Africa’s children. For example, Africa Bridge

• Provides school uniforms (required in most African schools), shoes and writing materials to children for only $25 a year, as well as providing scholarships to more than 600 students annually;
• Organizes community-based support to orphans and foster children through its “Most Vulnerable Children Committees;”
• Supports environmental preservation by tree planting projects in an area that’s losing nearly 200,000 acres a year to deforestation. A long-term goal is to find a substitute fuel to reduce the trees cut for firewood.

Africa Bridge does a lot – mostly with volunteers, and always at the direction and in harmony with the values of the community in which it works.

On Aug. 29, you can join Africa Bridge at its annual Harvest Gala – an important fundraiser for this Portland-based organization. You can be a part of this innovative approach to international support. Read more about it at the Harvest Gala page of the Africa Bridge Web site.

By Denise Attwood, co-owner, Ganesh Himal Trading

In 1986, Ganesh Himal Trading started working with the Association for Craft Producers (ACP) in Kathmandu, Nepal. This project, started by Meera Bhatterai, has the goal of helping raise marginalized women’s self-esteem and income generating skills.

Laxmi Maharjan was a woman who had woven all of her life but never seen the money from any of the work she had done. The  money she earned had always gone to the male in her life, her father or her husband.

When Laxmi had children, she put away her loom, but as her children grew she realized how badly she wanted to send them to school. Her husband’s work did not give them even enough for living let alone for school.

Laxmi approached ACP and asked if they would help her to put her loom back together,  market her weaving and earn money to send her children to school. ACP agreed, and Laxmi became a part of the ACP team doing traditional cloth weaving and teaching other women to weave.

Meera recalls that when Laxmi received her first pay, she cried. She explained that she cried because she had never before had power in her life, and now she did.

ACP helped Laxmi save her money, and she used it to send her three children to good schools. Laxmi herself had never had the opportunity to be educated, but she understood its value, particularly for girls. As a result, she sent her girl child as well as her boys to the same quality of school. Eventually, all of her children, with her money and encouragement, earned college level degrees.

When Laxmi first went to ACP, other women in her village became interested. With ACP’s help, Laxmi eventually organized 60 other women in her village to begin weaving, earning income and saving it on their own.

Laxmi’s work has brought economic viability and a huge change to the status of women in her village. Women have more say in their families’ decision making and have been able to influence the education and health of their children, particularly their girl children.

Laxmi’s daughter Sudha, who was educated with the money her mother earned from weaving, ended up not only learning the traditional weaving skills of her mother but also getting a Masters in Social Work. After graduation, Sudha worked for the Nepali government in a program for the blind. After several years of this work she realized that the most important social work she had ever seen was the work that her mother had done with the women weavers in her village.

Sudha decided that this was the work that she really wanted to do, so she returned to her village and has now taken over working with the weavers group to help market their products through ACP and provide for more training and help for the women.

In 2008, Sudha was asked by ACP to represent the organization at the Sante Fe International Folk Festival as a spokesperson for women weavers in Nepal. She was able to travel elsewhere in the U.S., speaking to groups about her mother’s work.

Ganesh Himal products are available in Portland at Ten Thousand Villages; Paloma Clothing; Trade Roots; and Mirador.

When I was a young girl growing up in Kansas I loved going to Pennsylvania in the summer to visit my grandparents.

Their basement had two sections: one with Grandpa’s tools, which was interesting but untouchable, and one with Grandma’s beautiful handmade items from around the world that begged to be touched.

My sister and I helped pack the boxes that were to be shipped to various places in the United States. My grandma was Edna Ruth Byler, and that section of the basement was the beginnings of what grew to be Ten Thousand Villages.

In 1946, Edna accompanied her husband, Joe, to Puerto Rico. There the Mennonite Central Committee workers showed her the fine needlework the women in Puerto Rico were making and asked her to find a way to market the pieces in the United States. She did.

She carried the embroidered samples in the trunk of her car and traveled to churches showing the handmade items and telling the stories of the artisans. Within a few years, she acquired additional hand-carved woodenware from Haiti and cross-stitch needlework from Palestinian refugees.

She later opened a gift shop in her basement. She loved showing customers the beautiful items and telling the stories of how they were made. For 25 years, Grandma traveled from the south to Canada and from coast to coast to introduce people to these handmade items and telling the stories of the people who made them.

When I lived in Houston, I volunteered at the Ten Thousand Villages in Rice Village, served on the Board of Directors as Secretary, then Vice-President, and finally President. Before considering a move to the Portland area I first checked to make sure there was a store nearby. As I unpack boxes at Ten Thousand Villages in Portland, OR, I am reminded of filling boxes so many years ago in Grandma’s basement in Pennsylvania.

As I help customers find a gift or tell them something about an item that they are appreciating, I feel a connectedness to the many people who work to bring these handmade goods to buyers and a very special connection to my grandma.

A weaver of fairly traded rugs from Pakistan

I’d been volunteering with Ten Thousand Villages for several years before I really caught the fair trade bug.

Of course, I loved Villages (what’s not to love?) for its mission, the products, the other volunteers and the staff.

But it wasn’t until I read a Nicholas Kristof column that I felt an urgency around fair trade. Kristof was writing about Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman who was sentenced to be raped by four men because of an alleged offense by her brother against a wealthy family.

In an amazing act of courage, she fought back through the judicial system – and won. With the settlement she received, she opened schools and a women’s shelter. She also had to spend much of the settlement on body guards, as her life remained in jeopardy for several years.

After reading the column, I remember saying to myself (I wonder if I actually said it out loud), “What can I do?” What can I do in Portland, Oregon that could affect the life of a woman in Pakistan?

I realized that I already was involved in change – and what I needed to do was reinforce my commitment to Ten Thousand Villages. While fair trade won’t wipe out thousands of years of repression of women, it can start to break the cycle of poverty, dependence and ignorance that traps both men and women.

I don’t know much about international economics, but I do know that educating women is an essential step toward improving social, cultural and economic conditions in emerging countries. Our rug vendors show us how the purchase of their products helps children go to school; helps women gain independence; and helps men gain economic security.

Despite death threats and legal battles, Mukhtar Mai continues her fight to protect women and help them become independent. Kristof continues to write about her courage and the miracles she is bringing about for other women. And Portland’s own Mercy Corps has helped direct thousands of dollars to Mukhtar’s programs.

I can’t match Mukhtar’s courage or her energy. What I can do is to continue supporting Villages with my time and my dollars. I like to think that every Pakistan-made rug sold at Villages means one less woman who’s going to need Mukhtar’s help.

Growing up in a family of seven, sisters Beth Kapsch and Kristi Jo (KJ) Lewis know what it’s like to relate to others for the good of the community. Each grew up and dedicated their lives working with women and family policy issues and equitable international development. Beth worked at the Oregon Commission on Children and Families as an advocate and lobbyist for fair wage and responsible family policies, while KJ found her home in South Africa working for a non-profit launching domestic violence shelters in the Cape Flats townships.

The real seeds of Global Sistergoods were planted in 2005, when both sisters were in transition, contemplating their next move to help woman and family justice. Commenting on a trip to Africa, KJ stated: “The image of poor and helpless rural women did not reflect the strong and resilient African women I knew. If only the world knew their stories and the amazing work they do, perhaps perception would change.” A friend suggested, “Why not start a business and tell their stories through the crafts?” And that’s how it started–Beth and KJ’s business of being  and promoting “change agents.”

In it’s fourth year, Global Sistergoods and it’s goal to advance economic development among economically disadvantage women artisans is thriving, even during tough economic times. Working with 18 different artisans or collectives on three continents, Global Sistergoods continues to differentiate itself in the fair trade market by emphasizing women as economic drivers in sustainable international development. Beth and KJ both know from experience that women who are disempowered economically have few choices, yet when these women are given opportunities, “they do not squander” and their communities thrive.  The company provides technical assistance to the artisans–when required–on issues concerning exporting, quality control, setting price points, product design and development and shipping.  Beth and KJ have noticed a change in customer’s manners with the change in the economy, however, people’s buying habits have started to benefit Global Sistergoods.

“People are being more careful about spending and looking for quality over quantity. People are voting with their dollar–a good thing for fair trade.”–KJ.

Connect with Global Sistergoods:

• Global Sistergood’s main Web site
• Beth and KJ’s inspirational blog
• Facebook
• Myspace
• Twitter