Check out this video from the awesome Abby Martin on President José Mujica of Uruguay. So many reasons to love this guy. For starters, Mujica has refused to live at the Presidential Palace or have a motorcade. He lives in a one-bedroom house on his wife’s farm and drives a 1987 Volkswagen. He has been described as “the world’s ‘poorest’ president”, due to his austere lifestyle and his donation of around 90 percent of his $12,000 (£7,500) monthly salary to charities that benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs. “I’m called ‘the poorest president’, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more.”

An amazing story of how one woman saw a way to make a difference in the lives of a few poor Cambodian women and how that grew to affect many more people. It is becoming more and more clear that we the people are the ones who are offering real solutions and solving problems. We must take the power back into our own hands and do what we can to create change in our communities and beyond.

While on holiday in Cambodia, Diana Saw witnessed a young mother having to sell her baby. “I was quite traumatized,” she said of that experience in 2006.  “Sitting in that mother’s hut made out of leaves with no toilet, running water or electricity, Diana, then in her mid-30s, thought: “How can two women who are around the same age live in such different circumstances? I went back home and told my partner that this is what I want to do: I want to come back to Cambodia, start a business, employ single moms.”  Within two months, Diana had moved to Cambodia. And through several failed business ideas, along with the difficulty of learning a new language and living in a different culture, she set up a small workshop making bags out of recycled materials.  Offering wages above the market rate and a cheerful working environment, she gave single mothers, and eventually other at-risk women, stable jobs so they could feel a sense of security.  “May they never sell their children again because they know that there is a job waiting for them and the children can go to school.”

Thanks to Our Better World for this post.

 

Photographer Cory Richards shares his insights on what it was like to be homeless at age 14 and how that helped shaped his outlook on life. For his raw and emotional photography, Richards was named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2012. Love this guy!

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
~Helen Keller

Love these guys at the Food is Free project based in Austin, Texas. They are doing so many awesome things to bring about real change and have been inspiring countless others to rethink food and community. Check out this empowering speech given by one of the founders at the March against Monsanto on Saturday. The food revolution is unstoppable!!

“It was exciting to share the ideas and vision of Food is Free Project with so many passionate and fired up people at the March Against Monsanto in Austin. We shared over 7,000 free organic seedlings and started some amazing conversations about simple ways to take action in our communities. Onward!”

Libby and Brady Birky, devoted countless hours to soup kitchens before quitting their day jobs to open Same Cafe, the first non-profit restaurant in Denver. Their menu consists of fresh organic ingredients from local farms and is prepped by a volunteer kitchen. The mission is making healthy food available for all. Patrons give what they can afford or volunteer their time in the kitchen. They are able to feed hundreds of people healthy meals everyday. It’s a full time job for a stronger community. So awesome!