Slavery? Today?

By Rebecca and Glenn Fadner

Slavery ended in 1863 when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, right? Guess again! Slavery is "alive and well" throughout the modern world!! Oh, it's illegal in over 80% of the countries, but it still exists. In fact, estimates range from as "low" as 4 million to as high as 27 million people enslaved, with the US State Department settling on around 12 million. Contrast that with an estimated 4 million slaves in the US immediately before the Civil War.

Trafficking in human beings is "tied for second" (with illegal arms) as the second largest criminal activity in the world (after the drug trade). And if you think it only happens "over there", think again! The US is both a destination and an origination point for victims of trafficking.

Because combating the trauma of those rescued out of trafficking is central to the mission of our supplier STOPStart, we are taking the opportunity to become more informed about the scourge of human trafficking and how to combat it. We will be attending the first Global Forum on Human Trafficking in Carlsbad, CA on October 8-9.

We'll have more to share from what we've learned, but we want to encourage YOU to become more informed as well. Here are several resources to assist you:

• "Not For Sale" - David Batstone A look at examples of human trafficking worldwide AND how a number of organizations are working to combat it.

• www.notforsalecampaign.org - Up-to-the-minute information on how people are organizing to combat modern-day slavery

• The Salvation Army Human Trafficking site

We encourage you to become informed and involved!

Using Entrepreneurship to Combat Global Poverty

By Marita Greenidge

"Multiply the population of the US by three. That’s how many people around the world live on about a dollar a day.

Do it again and now you have the number closer to $2. About forty percent of the world lives on $2 or less a day.

What’s that like? What happens to you when you have two dollars a day to live on. It’s almost impossible to imagine. I mean, $2 is the rent on your apartment for about 45 minutes. $2 buys you one bite of lunch at a local restaurant...

And yet, two billion people survive on that sort of income. "

Those are the opening lines from Seth Godin's post last week Friday. You should definitely read the entire post here. Godin speaks about why entrepreneurship is so important to social and economic development. The focus eventually turns to the Acumen Fund, a non-profit Seth will be working with. I particularly like the Acumen Fund because they seem to share our ideals here at KVI. Here's an explanation of what they do:

"Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. We seek to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Our investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches." - Acumen Fund Wesbite

So the idea is that charity alone is not the answer because it creates dependency. However using charity and investing in projects that have the potential to offer the world's disadvantaged ways to support themselves negates the need for continual charitable donations. This is very important because it means that if charitable dollars run out, persons aren't instataneously transported back to poverty. Donations become more like investments than hand-outs.

This is why we at KVI believe in Fair Trade and helping our artisans find marketable solutions to their economic problems. We are facilitators giving artisans connections to distribution channels they wouldn't normally have so that they can chart their own entrepreneurial course.

Of course this brings into question what happens when we aren't there to facilitate but that's a discussion for another post when we'll talk about why succession planning is so important.

Videos for Social Good

By Marita Greenidge

I was doing my daily reading of Mashable and I came across this post on the top 10 videos for social good. They are all pretty interesting.

The groups vary from those supporting environmental health to those trying to lift people out of poverty. Have a watch; I really like the last one which is an interactive video where a young person has to choose his path. Each path can lead to various outcomes. It clearly shows how the small choices you make in life can lead to serious consequences. Good work by the Metropolitan Police Service of London.