Beyond our own work and Action Projects, The Love Alliance strongly believes in partnering with other non-profit organizations that are making an impact on the world.
Currently, 25% of profits from our "Remember The Enslaved" merchandise goes towards Love146's Round Home in the Philippines. This home provides safety and rehabilitation of young girls who have been rescued out of the sex trafficking industry. Specifically this home provides:
- Housing, nutrition, clean water, clothing
- Medical care, hygiene training
- Psychological development, trauma counseling
- Education, vocational training
- Spiritual development
- Art, play and music therapy
- Recreation, cultural social experiences
- Life planning and reintegration to society
- Safety from violence, exploitation and abuse
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OCTOBER '10 ACTION PROJECT
October is Fair Trade Month and as always we want to focus on human trafficking and fair trade this month. While researching we came across some startling statistics. World coffee production is estimated at 110 - 120 MILLION bags per year. Coffee is the world's second-most-valuable commodity exported by developing countries, after oil. While a lot of coffee is being sold, coffee farmers receive only one percent or less of the price of a cup of conventional coffee sold at a coffee shop. Farmers receive only about six percent of the price of a bag of conventional coffee bought in the supermarket. Often times small coffee farmers are forced to sell to middlemen who pay them half the market price, generally between $.30-.50 per pound.
Americans consume 400 MILLION cups of coffee per day, or equivalent to 146,000,000,000 (146 BILLION) cups of coffee per year; making the United States the LEADING CONSUMER of coffee in the world. Coffee is good… to many they would say it is great, but as the leading consumers we need to make sure that we are consuming fair trade and non-exploited coffee. As we have said in the past, the great thing about our society is that it is based on supply and demand. If we demand fair trade items, the more accessible they will become.
For the month of October we are asking you to request and drink only fair trade coffee whenever possible. Ask your favorite coffee shop if they have a fair trade option (they often do). Buy fair trade coffee from the supermarket to make at home, etc. We have created an extensive list of fair trade coffee separated by coffee bought at the store; coffee by the cup; and coffee brands.
You can click here to view our list of Fair Trade Coffees. A few examples include: Starbucks Cafe Estima, Dunkin Doughnuts Espresso Drinks, Newman’s Own Coffees, Sam’s Choice Fair Trade Certified Coffees, etc.
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OCTOBER '09 ACTION PROJECT
If you have been with The Love Alliance for more than a year than you would know that October is Fair Trade Month. Therefore we are once again focusing on Fair Trade. This month we are asking you to educate as many people about Fair Trade as possible. You can do this a lot of different ways. First off, we have posted a blog entry on our website that talks about all things fair trade, you can increase your knowledge about fair trade and share the blog with others. Click here to read it.
Being online gives us the ability to educate mass amounts of people quickly and with little effort. Post updates on your Facebook/Twitter/Myspace. Here are some examples:
October is Fair Trade Month. Learn more here: http://bit.ly/3wnWN
I don’t take slavery in my coffee. http://bit.ly/3wnWN
I take my chocolate slave-free. http://bit.ly/3wnWN
If you are posting on Twitter, use the hashtag #fairtrade to help Fair Trade become a trending topic and encourage your friends to Repost.
Tell your friends, family and co-workers about Fair Trade. Encourage them to look for Fair Trade alternatives this month.
Educate the general public. Buy “Remember the Poor” and “Remember the Enslaved” products in our webstore and tell people about Fair Trade when asked. You can also buy “Remember the Poor” and “Remember the Enslaved” flyer cards in our webstore to hand out.
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February '09- The U.S. alone spends $1 billion dollars on chocolate each year for Valentines Day and it is estimated that 40% of the worlds cocoa is provided through child slave labor. Fortunately though, there are certain chocolate brands that are “fair
trade” and have guaranteed to utilize no slave labor during the process
of cultivating and producing their chocolate. In light of this The Love Alliance community chose to be responsible chocolate eaters and only eat and buy fair trade chocolate.
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October '08- In recognition of Fair Trade month, The Love Alliance community found one item they regularly use and found a fair trade alternative for it. The goal of this month was to educate ourselves and our community on the availability of fair trade alternatives.
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March '08- In recognition of World Woman's Day, The Love Alliance community through out the world wrote their government leaders making them aware of modern day slavery within their countries borders. Being that this is an issue that greatly effects women and children, we felt this was an ideal time to raise awareness for this issue. Over and over we received reports from individuals within the T.L.A. community stating that they had heard back from their representative through email and some through telephone encouraging them that their letters of concern were heard and that they will do anything they can to positively effect this issue.
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October '07- In recognition of Fair Trade month, The Love Alliance community bought only fair trade. Where we could not find fair trade alternative's we requested an alternative be provided.