Our Heroes
Read here about other great causes we support because of their vision, innovative ideas and commitment to change.
PLANT A TREE TODAY
Have a look at this amazing company where you can offset your carbon emissions in various ways.
At Plant A Tree Today they can’t completely reverse the effects of deforestation and global warming, but they are planting trees that help to combat climate change, provide sustainable economic development for poor rural communities and reduce the effects of natural disasters.
Everyone can make a difference, see what the PATT Foundation is doing in Thailand, Asia and the world.
ROOM TO READ
John Wood, Founder and CEO, launched Room to Read after a trek through Nepal. He visited several local schools and was amazed by the warmth and enthusiasm of the students and teachers, but also saddened by the shocking lack of resources. Driven to help, John quit his senior executive position with Microsoft and built a global team to work with rural villages to build sustainable solutions to their educational challenges.
Founding Room to Read, John wove proven corporate business practices with his inspiring vision to provide educational access to 10 million children in the developing world.
Room to Read partners with local communities throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating local language children’s literature, constructing schools, providing education for girls and establishing computer labs. They seek to intervene early in the lives of children in the belief that education empowers people to improve socioeconomic conditions for their families, communities, countries and future generations. Through the opportunities that only education can provide, they strive to break the cycle of poverty, one child at a time.
So far Room to Read has funded over 5,100 libraries, built over 226 schools and much more.
HEALTHY PLANET
Healthy Planet is a social enterprise and a registered charity. All the m
oney made goes to good causes like schools and the environment. With the support of the UN’s Environmental Protection Team, Google technology, NASA’s images and others, you can adopt land in any one of the 77,000 protected parks around the world in your own name or as a gift to others.
Donations start from £45pa (or £4.75pm) for a plot the size of 140 football pitches and your name will appear on Google Earth. To find out more about the “Land Guardian” programme and their other work, visit:
KIVA
Kiva organises loans that change lives for entrepreneurs in third world countries. Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community.
Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.
Kiva partners with existing expert micro-finance institutions. In doing so, they gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Their partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, their partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but their micro-finance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.
CONSERVE
It’s not paper. It’s not cloth. Neither is it some new fancy DuPont material. It’s recycled polythene bags!
Conserve, a non-profit organisation, using a blend of creativity, design & innovation have turned, what was once a dull environmental hazard, into a clean, funky and fashionable material, from which have been crafted a range of appealing handbags and fashion accessories.
With the support of the Asian Development Bank, they are currently working on a project to generate income, through the production of this material, for the less advantaged communities in Delhi.
Conserve hope many buyers will support their efforts to help save the environment while providing a source of income to the urban poor.
