Ethical, sustainable, fair-trade. These are all big words that hold weight, but what do they mean, who do they affect and how do we start making a difference?
Here in America, and many other parts of the world, we get the privilege of consistent employment, high salaries, lunch breaks and air conditioned spaces filled with the simple comforts of hot coffee and vending machines full of snacks.
We have opportunity, freedom and options.
But, what does it look like when you have nothing? When you're trying to make work the little you've been given?
We see it in the city of New Delhi, where sweatshops are overflowing with women working endless hours and barely making $3 a day; their spaces filled with chemicals they're breathing in, and not even a bathroom to take a break in.
We see it in the city of Da Nang, where women are thrown out of their communities - shamed for having children out of the culturally acceptable relationships or fleeing from an abusive relationship - now out of options, no one willing to hire them.
It starts with poverty.
With no hope of income, women (and children) are now extremely vulnerable for exploitation. With no refuge and no options, many are forced to work in sweatshops or tricked into human-trafficking, trapped in a life that's difficult to escape.
But here's where hope shines brightest. With you, with me.
Here, you and Lev get to partner to change a life of a woman- multiple women- all over the world. By deciding that it matters who is making your clothes, the environment they're working in and how they're being treated. Knowing that every small thing matters and it all adds up to bigger and bigger changes.
By putting your money, time or energy into fighting for women who deserve more than they've been handed.
In this community, you are making a difference. You are providing at-risk women a livable wage, a safe and clean working environment, bathroom breaks, chai tea breaks, and a way for them to provide for their family.
You are a force to be reckoned with. You hold the power in your hands and your heart.
One small step at a time, you and our Lev community empower the vulnerable to bring Hope, Healing and Restoration.
