Blogs

• October 30, 2009

  True Meaning

  posted by Things We Support

  You’ve probably heard Stephan mention True Meaning in interviews, and for those who haven’t, you’ll be hearing a lot more about it.
  
  True Meaning is Stephan’s nonprofit initiative, and it is our chance to make a difference in the world. Every year, True Meaning will open pop-up stores during the holiday season that feature 12 products designed by nonprofits as tools to end poverty (such as One Laptop per Child’s $100 laptop, KickStart’s water pumps, etc.). Next holiday season, you can symbolically purchase one of these remarkable tools as a holiday gift for family member of friend. In actuality, you will be giving a 100% tax-deductible donation directly to the nonprofit that developed each product. Instead of walking out of a SoHo store with a heavy-duty irrigation pump, you’ll get a certificate of donation and a kickass holiday gift for free (yes, we understand the fun of unwrapping a present).
  
  A wise man once said, we are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams. But let’s be real, we’re not engineers. And we’re not industrial designers. Let’s expand the impact of thoughtful and strategically designed products that can provide solutions to poverty. We believe that 12 gifts can change the world. We do not support band-aid solutions. This is not about charity, aid, or dependency. This is about people getting the tools they need to change their own lives.
  
  The True Meaning stores will offer a progressive and socially responsible form of consumerism.
  One Laptop per Child’s $100 laptops are distributed to school children in Haiti; Kickstart’s MoneyMaker waterpumps can be found in hardware stores in Kenya; But most of us have never handled these incredible tools. To understand the power and utility of each tool is to be recruited by its cause (like hearing 3eb live). The gift you buy someone is sharing in that inspiration.
  
  It is the true meaning of giving –a gift to someone you love that helps someone you will probably never know.
  
  10 Facts about world poverty
  1. More than 800 million people go hungry every day in a world that has unparalleled wealth and food production capacity. It is not a question about whether or not there is enough food but a matter of accessibility and equal distribution to all people in the world
  2. 7 million agricultural workers in Africa have died since 1985. 16 million more deaths are estimated to occur in the next 2 decades, seriously affecting agriculture and education
  3. The wealthiest 1/5 of the world consumes 86% of all goods and services, while the poorest 1/5 consumes 1%
  4. Nearly 4 million youth in the US b/w the ages of 14 and 24 are high school dropouts
  5. 2/3 of illiterate people are women, and the rate of unemployment among women is 2/3 that of men. Almost 80% of poor children in the US live in working households
  6. Over 1/3 of the world’s people lack access to basic sanitization. 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Contaminated water kills 2.2 million people per year
  7. As many as 300,000 children under the age of 18 (some as young as 8 years old) serve in government forces for armed rebel groups
  8. Underweight malnutrition remains the leading cause of disease and death in the world
  9. More than 33 million people, including 13 million children, live in households in the United States that experience hunger or are at risk of hunger
  10. For $0.75 per American per day, hunger could be cut in half in the United States AND worldwide by 2015
  
  This is our call to action.
  
  We invite you to donate. Your contribution makes it possible for us to begin building stores to end poverty.