Ilus EluOur Beautiful Life

We’ve had some concerned customers e-mailing to ask why there was nothing on our site about supporting Haiti, and weren’t we going to do something?

The answer is yes, we are. We just had to be extremely thorough in deciding which NGO to support, because we are going to be donating 100% of our profits until 28 February, and 5% of our annual profits thereafter. That’s *your* money we’re talking about. We wanted to make sure we knew exactly where it was going. Aside from being Canadian, we had four requirements:

a) a zero-overhead organisation. Volunteers donate their time, transportation is donated, and all funds are used to purchase mission supplies, not diverted to administration.

b) have extensive experience in disaster relief in general and Haiti in particular. Medcins Sans Frontiers and the Red Cross both meet this criteria, but have huge overhead costs. We wanted a small, fast deployment that could be providing immediate assistance on the ground.

c) an organisation also devoted to capacity building, assisting communities to create opportunities to break the poverty cycle. Global Medic trains local organisations on the use of their equipment, which is then donated to the community.

d) the ability to earmark funds for specific use in Haiti. With many larger organisations, donations go to administrative costs or other missions.

We finally found just the people we were looking for: GlobalMedic. You can learn more about them at the link. Their response team made the overland crossing from the Dominican Republic into Haiti on the 15th of January, and is operating a clinic on the grounds of the Adventist Hospital in Port-au-Prince. Five water purification units are currently operational, providing clean water to the staff, patients and families in the hospital, as well as many of those seeking refuge on the hospital grounds. They are also distributing water purification tablets. However, their medical supplies are already running low. A relief flight has left Toronto and is en route, but we can help stock that next flight, and the next, and the next.
But let’s do better than that. Let’s go for a new high capacity water purification system! $1500 will provide clean water for 1000 people per day. $10 000 will give clean water to 30 000. We can keep the field hospital stocked in the basic supplies it needs to help the ill, traumatised and malnourished. How far can we go? Let’s find out!

From the Global Medic website:

$30 can provide 200 people with clean drinking water each day following a disaster
$100 can provide 10,000 water purification tablets
$150 can provide long-term water solutions for a family

We know that finding extra money to donate is hard. We’re trying to make it a bit easier: through the purchase of things you had already budgeted for, you can help those who desperately need it. We’re going to find a little widget to put up here, so you can keep track of our efforts. Thank you for your support!

P.S. If, like us, you have some links in the emergency services sector, and you know of some medical supplies, tents, stretchers, anything on their need list and need a way to get it to them, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Many hands make light work.

Some days they never seem to end as we try to maintain a balance with life, work and being entertained. Updating the blog has been on the “honey-do” list for a while now but, this morning I got up and felt energized to at least get a start on it and update the software, widgets, look and tools. So, yay for that!  I suspect that in my perfect world, I’d have an extra 6 hours per day, I think that would about cover it… The dedicated email we sent out in conjunction with yoyomama worked out very nicely, so as Meaghan worked on getting the orders together, I played the role of helper monkey, dealing with the labels and making tweaks here and there. Yay for teamwork!

More exciting news! We’ve just made our first purchase from a fair trade, wildcraft cooperative in Togo. They will be supplying all our future shea butter. What does this mean? You may notice a mild, nutty smell for a minute or two when applying our souffles, because the butter has not been chemically refined or deodorised.

Why have we changed suppliers? Well, we had some questions about the “organic” status and refining practices of our previous source. Since we couldn’t get them answered to our satisfaction, we’re taking our business elsewhere. We hope you like the results!

Well, to us and some of our more enviro-conscious customers, anyway: we’ve found a local supplier that produces recycled, biodegradable cosmetic packaging! We’re in discussions with them right now to see if they can help us fill the last gaps in our packaging needs. Stay tuned!

Alright, a little slower than planned. PHP and I are having a little argument. However, stay tuned for several new products, including two of your seasonal favourites: bug repellant and after-sun spray!

Forgive the renovation mess, we should have this blog seamlessly integrated with the main site by tomorrow evening.

In the meantime, some very exciting things happened today… one of which I hope to be able to tell you about soon!

The other is not very secret at all: we confirmed our membership in a farm cooperative that will see the majority of our essential oils produced right here in British Columbia!  Farming practices are all organic, all the time.  We’re really excited!  Distillation will take place in the fall, so there will be photos and maybe even some live blogging then.  You’ll get a real taste of what we’re doing to keep our products local, and contributing to the economy.

If that’s something near and dear to your heart, too, why not check out your local CSA or community garden?  There might be a plot left just waiting for your care!  If you’re in the lower mainland, we are members of this CSA: Nathan Creek Organic Farm.  There’s still room for a few more members this year!  Our meat comes from Greendale Farm in Mission.  There are tons of other great options, and we’d love to hear about them and link to them all.  Tell us about your CSA, community garden, coop or other green food initative!