Blog, Empowerment, featured, Products With a Purpose, SDGs, Women, Women's Rights

3 Teas and Coffee Brands That Support Women

With all that is going on in the world, helping women through our everyday consumer actions is a way we can make a difference in their lives. While we can’t all take to the streets in protest or write impassioned letters to our senators or even donate to a cause every month, we can divert the money we spend to companies that support the causes we care most about. It’s called conscious consumerism and it’s on the rise. Consumers are increasingly voting with their dollars on products that make a social, economic, and environmental impact. Two of the most consumed products in the United States are tea and coffee giving consumers a real opportunity to make a difference based on where they buy. In fact, Americans drank a whopping 89 billion servings of tea in 2021, and on average Americans consume two to three cups of coffee per day. Sixty-six percent of Americans are coffee drinkers.

I was recently sent two tea brands and a coffee brand to try and all three support women which I am exceptionally happy about. Here’s what they’re all about.

Jennifer JamesAugust 18, 2022Leave a comment

Blog, Book Reviews, Books, Empowerment, Gender Equality, Women and Girls

Book Review: #MeToo and Beyond: Perspectives on a Global Movement

#Metoo and Beyond: Perspectives on a Global Movement by M Cristina Alcalde My rating: 5 of 5 stars #MeToo and Beyond: Perspectives on a Global Movement challenges students of the #MeToo movement to look beyond the global North’s dominance of the now ubiquitous hashtag that went viral in 2017 to broaden their perspectives about gender-based violence around the world. While language, culture, and location keep … Continue reading Book Review: #MeToo and Beyond: Perspectives on a Global Movement

Jennifer JamesAugust 9, 2022Leave a comment

Anti-hate, Empowerment, featured, nonprofits

Holocaust Remembrance Day Marks Increase in Antisemitism in the United States

On this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) marks an all-time high in antisemitism in the United States. In its 2021 Audit of Antisemitism, 2717 incidents were recorded last year including assaults, vandalism, and harassment. 2021’s antisemitic incidents are up 34 percent. It is the highest number on record since the ADL began recording antisemitic incidents in 1979.

Antisemitic harassments were up 42 percent, vandalism by 14 percent, and assaults increased by 167 percent. Additionally, most of the incidents occurred in May 2021 and coincided with the military conflict between Isreal and Hamas. The previous highest month on record was November 2018 (300 incidents) which was the month after the Tree of Life synagogue mass shooting in Pittsburgh, PA. The states with the highest number of incidents were New York (416), New Jersey (370), California (367), Florida (190), Michigan (112), and Texas (112). Combined, these states account for 58% of the total incidents.

Jennifer JamesApril 27, 2022April 27, 2022Leave a comment

Asia, Blog, Economic Empowerment, Empowerment, Gender Equality, Women

Women’s Empowerment Program Update Four Years On

This past week I was thinking about the time I spent in Nepal with Coca- Cola to see the devastation after the earthquake and the global brand’s response to it. The April 2015 4.5 magnitude earthquake upended lives and left cities in rubble. I saw much of it during our travels through Kathmandu and its surrounding towns. NGOs worked with their partners in the field … Continue reading Women’s Empowerment Program Update Four Years On

Jennifer JamesJuly 28, 2021February 22, 2022Leave a comment

Blog, Empowerment, featured, Film Reviews, girls, Women and Girls, Women's Rights

Why The Eagle Huntress Is An Empowering Film for Young Girls

The Eagle Huntress narrated by Daisy Ridley follows the wonderful story of a teenage girl named Aisholpan who becomes the first eagle huntress in Mongolia.

We are introduced to Aisholpan at a boarding school located in a small town miles from her nomadic home because schools are quite far from where she lives. It’s the last day of school for that week and Aisholpan is taken home by her father on his moped. Her family are nomads that live in a simple circular hut in the midst of a vast barren plain edged by beautiful, rocky mountains. Her family consists of Aisholpan’s younger sister and brother, her mother, and her father.

Her father is one of the few remaining eagle hunters in Mongolia. For centuries Mongolian men caught eaglets, raised them, and used them to hunt for food to support their families. Since Aisholpan was a little girl she loved watching her father put on the eagle hunters’ garb and go out in search of food from rabbits to foxes. In fact, it was one of her joys to help her father with his eagle. As she grew older her father allowed her to play with his eagle as he saw her keen interest in becoming a hunter.

Continue reading “Why The Eagle Huntress Is An Empowering Film for Young Girls”

Annlyel JamesJanuary 10, 2017August 4, 2021Leave a comment

Blog, Children, Empowerment, Kindness

Join Us for the Be Fearless Be Kind Twitter Party With Hasbro #BFBK

We are thrilled to work with Hasbro again this year to help share their fantastic philanthropic work with kids. This year Hasbro is spreading the word about kindness, a trait we can all improve and enact more in our daily lives and also wholeheartedly teach our children. Be Fearless Be Kind is Hasbro’s new signature philanthropic initiative. It’s designed to inspire and empower kids to have the … Continue reading Join Us for the Be Fearless Be Kind Twitter Party With Hasbro #BFBK

Jennifer JamesNovember 10, 2016November 10, 20161 Comment

Blog, Book Reviews, Books, Charity, Economic Empowerment, Empowerment, Food Security, Haiti, nonprofits, Women, Women's Rights

Book Review: To Fool the Rain: Haiti’s Poor and Their Pathway to a Better Life

To Fool the Rain: Haiti’s Poor and Their Pathway to a Better Life by Steven Werlin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Helping families lift themselves out of poverty means helping them build income and wealth, but it is a social phenomenon as well,” wrote Steve Werlin, the author of To Fool the Rain: Haiti’s Poor and Their Pathway to a Better Life. “And one of the social change we try to effect involves working on the way members look at themselves.”

It is quite impressive how someone’s mind and attitude can alter and reset the course of one’s life. However, in order to eventually arrive at that mind reset some people require a substantive hand out, constant observation and follow-up; not simply a prescriptive hand up. When looking at the lowest income countries in the world like Haiti a vast array of NGOs work to alleviate some of its inherent problems with programs that address the root of poverty. Some provide work programs, educational programs, health care, or even microloan programs. But some of Haiti’s families are so extremely poor they cannot dream of qualifying for many of these programs because they have virtually nothing. In fact, they live in such cyclical poverty they cannot feed themselves on a daily basis, or even every other day. In Haiti’s deepest far reaches and unfathomable rural areas are families who live in abject poverty far away from roads and towns. They require the most cumulative social programs designed by worldwide NGOs that specialize in the nuances of poverty reduction and eradication.

In Haiti, for example, one of those social programs is called “Chemen lavi miyo (CLM)” in Creole or a Pathway to a Better Life that is run by Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest microfinance organization. Even as a microfinance enterprise Fonkoze realized that to reach the poorest Haitian families means to provide overarching programs that teach rural women who qualify for their CLM program financial and entrepreneurial skills as well as life and relationship skills.

Continue reading “Book Review: To Fool the Rain: Haiti’s Poor and Their Pathway to a Better Life”

Jennifer JamesOctober 5, 2016April 23, 2017Leave a comment

Asia, Blog, Economic Empowerment, Empowerment, featured, Nepal, Nepal, Nepal Reporting Trip, Women, Women and Girls, Women's Rights

Nepali Women Increase Earning Potential Through Business Training #5by20

The energy and enthusiasm was palpable as we walked into a room full of eager women entrepreneurs role-playing the everyday dynamic between business owners and their customers. While the room was loaded with fun and laughter during this exercise, its importance was not lost on any of the women who had come to the campus of Coca-Cola Bottlers Nepal Limited’s (BNL) 5by20 training, an initiative to empower 10,000 women business owners across Nepal by 2020. Even though these women are already a part of Kathmandu’s bustling community of urban shop owners, they had come because they realized there are more business skills to learn, hone, and improve. And, as women in micro-enterprise the more skills they learn, the more they can earn for their households in a country where men overwhelmingly dominate the private sector.

SONY DSC — Pallavi Gautam, Senior Executive, Public Affairs and Communication (PAC) at Bottlers Nepal Limited conducts a 5by20 training on September 13 in Kathmandu.

Continue reading “Nepali Women Increase Earning Potential Through Business Training #5by20”

Jennifer JamesSeptember 21, 2016September 21, 20165 Comments

Action Campaigns, Education, Empowerment, Women and Girls

Blog Action Day: Raising Voices Against Brutality, Inequality in Education & Other Worldwide Injustices

We live in an amazing time in the world. Technology has changed so much about the way we live and what we now consider to be basic necessities. But beyond things like cell phones, iPads, text messaging and email, one of the most important ways that technology has impacted our lives is that it has given people all over the world a voice.

As the “new media” revolution continues to evolve, web-based content creators are increasing in numbers and taking full advantage of the many opportunities to connect, share and report on pressing issues that are capturing the attention of the world at large. Online sharing has not only had a huge effect on the messages that get communicated to the masses, but also on the demographic that receives the messages. Issues and stories that were once relegated to short blurbs in the Culture section of the local newspaper, now have the ability to gain viral traction simply by being discussed on a popular blog or podcast.

Continue reading “Blog Action Day: Raising Voices Against Brutality, Inequality in Education & Other Worldwide Injustices”

Tisha BergOctober 8, 2015Leave a comment

Blog, Empowerment, Women, Women and Girls, Women's Rights

Women Entrepreneurs Find Support From Global Drink Company #5By20

Guest Post by Tisha Berg of Biz Mommy

“The Journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”
— Lau Tzu, Chinese Philosopher

That inspirational quote has never rang more true than when considering the journey of thousands of successful women entrepreneurs around the world who started out with little more than a desire to provide the basic fundamental needs for their families.

Although female entrepreneurship has been steadily increasing over the last 10 or 15 years, there are still many hurdles to overcome. This is especially true for women in underprivileged communities here in the U.S. and abroad. While starting a new business is an uphill challenge for most budding entrepreneurs, for women living in poverty, it is often considered an impossible dream.

But seemingly insurmountable odds are no match for a woman with a burning passion to succeed.

It is in that gap, between the audacity of hope and the fulfilling of needs, that the Coca-Cola Company saw an opportunity to be of service.

Continue reading “Women Entrepreneurs Find Support From Global Drink Company #5By20”