OMaaT Issue 1 (One Miracle At A Time) by One Miracle At A Time

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Sarah Justin Harrocks Danks Illustrations Illustrations

CONTENTS 5

FEATURED MIXOLOGIST Mimm’s Pearl

Cultural Survival

Celebrating 40 Years of Indigenous Advocacy

Project 21 Featured KickStarted Out of Poverty Short Story 23 Featured Dating Death

25 Poetry Various Artist 28 Bank Forclosed “Sweet Justice” 30 Little Footprints Big Steps

7 Staff Michael Marston Publisher

Aisha The ObserverTasveer TreePhotography

Angel Mendez Creative Director Derek Haines VP Rebecca Brown Editor Travis Jensen Co-founder Ryan Reese Street Team Director Alicia McGovern Director of Social Media David Hamilton Street Team Ninja Alberto Munoz Street Team Ninja

Dear Subscriber,

Since you’re reading this, you’ve already joined us in our vision to shape a community of givers, artists, and writers whose unification has the power to change and save lives. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

find those people most in desperate need, cover their stories, and aid in their recovery as a community. We rely on our members to help us find those who need our help the most. If you know an individual or a group who fits the criteria of someone we can help, please submit his/her/their story to us Every issue will cover a story about someone through our website . whose lives have in one way or another taken a turn for the worse and needs our help, In addition to always being on the lookout and subsequent issues will cover the suc- for causes we can help with, we’re also always cesses of the people we help. We use a por- looking for art, photography, fiction, nonfiction of member contributions to cover the tion, and poetry to put in our publication. small overhead of the publication, and the If you or someone you know is an artist or rest goes directly to the current cause. writer, please send your work or have him/ her send work to us for consideration. Work As a member, you are the eyes and ears of should be sent to members@omaat.org. our organization. Our mission includes reaching the people in this world who are Again, we thank you. We thank you for your most in need, people who are not on the ra- contributions, for your interest in literature dar of larger organizations and do not have and art, your desire to help others less fortuaccess to the resources that would help lift nate than yourself, and your willingness to them from their problems. And yet these join our community. We look forward to a people are the ones who are in the most long and fulfilling relationship with you in need of help. the future! Thank you! It is through grassroots vigilance that we

Featured Mixologist

Dann Hamm, of 1 Tippling Place 2006 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 215-665-0456 Featured Drink is “Mimm’s Pearl” .5 oz fresh lime juice .5 oz sweetened ginger syrup .5 oz spiced chai infused simple syrup 2 oz aged rum 2 dashes Canella Apple Bitters (optional) Add all ingredients into shaker and shake just enough to chill ingredients Strain into ice filled Collins glass top off with club soda

Recipe for spiced chai simple syrup Steep 2 spiced chai tea bags for 5 minutes in 2 cups of water remove bags and add 2 cups of sugar take off of heat and stir to incorporate keep in the fridge and it will last about a week yields ~3 cups

Aisha Tasveer Photographer photography.preciousmoment@gmail.com Aisha Tasveer Photographer photography.preciousmoment@gmail.com

Aisha Tasveer Photographer photography.preciousmoment@gmail.com

Featured Artists

Sarah Harrocks mercurialblonde@gmail.com http://mercurialblonde.tumblr.com

Justin Danks jpdanks@gmail.com justindanks.com

The Observer Tree The ObserverTree is a platform situated 60m above the ground in an old-growth Eucalyptus tree in the heart of Tasmania’s southern forests. On the 14th of December 2011, conservationist Miranda Gibson climbed a rope to the top of the tree and vowed to stay untill the forest is protected. Miranda’s upper canopy home is a tree under imminent threat, in a forest due to be logged any day now. The tree-top platform is fully equipped with the technology to communicate to the world. This website (http://observertree.org/) features Miranda’s daily blog about life in a tree-sit, commentary on the state of the forest negotiations, updates on flora and fauna monitoring and video footage from the tree-sit. Watch this space for celebrity and guest blog appearances too! If logging commences, Miranda will also, sadly, document the destruction of the forest around her, streaming these images out to the world. The traumatic process of forest destruction that occurs every day in Tasmania is generally hidden from public view. Now these archaic practises will be fully exposed, allowing the global community to see for themselves what is really going on in our forests.

Why?

This area of forest is in an area earmarked as one of Tasmania’s future forest reserves. It was promised protection by the State and Federal governments. Yet, if the logging industry has its way, it is going to be logged this summer! What is really going on in Tasmania’s forests?

A brief history of the Tasmanian Forest Negotiations:

2011 could have been a year of celebration for Tasmania’s wild forest. In October 2010, A statement of principles signed by Environmental NGO’s, industry groups and Unions paved the way for comprehensive forest protection and a restructuring of the logging industry. But, more than a year later, not one tree has been saved, more cash has been delivered to the timber industry and destructive logging continues in some of the island’s most sensitive and iconic forest areas. So what went wrong?

A series of broken promises, industry pressure and government backpeddling have jeapordized the progress of this historic agreement. First, in December 2010, the Tasmanian Government failed to implement a promised moratorium on the logging of 572,000 hectares of high conservation value forest. Forestry Tasmania, the Stateowned forest management agency, flaunted this failure of leadership by pushing ahead with roading and logging in some of Tasmania’s most contentious forest areas. In August 2011, the Tasmanian and Federal Governments signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) that promised immediate protection for 430,000 hectares of high conservation forest. The IGA stipulated that the Tasmanian Government would ‘ensure that the 430,000 hectares of State Forest identified … is not accessed [for logging]‘ and that the Commonwealth would compensate any contract holder affected by the protection of these areas. But the agreement also required that hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of sawlogs and veneer peeler logs must continue to be supplied to the industry. Malaysian logging company Ta Ann Holdings has been promised an ongoing supply of over 265,000 cubic metres of timber per year from Tasmania’s forests. Forestry Tasmania argued that they could not supply this timber without continuing to log within the 430,00 hectares. In another backflip, the Tasmanian and Commonwealth Governments have turned a blind eye to the ongoing logging of pristine forests within an area they earmarked for immediate protection. As 2011 drew to a close, Tasmanians were suffering the loss of hundreds of hectares of native forest that should have been saved from logging. Activists have occupied forests on the flanks of Mt Mueller to document this destruction. Prime Minister Julia Gillard must keep her word before the trail of broken promises undermines this crucial opportunity to protect Tasmania’s forests.

A brief introduction to WHO is responsible for Tasmanian forest destruction

Ta Ann Tasmania’s wood requirements are driving the continued destruction of vital high conservation value forests. The supply of peeler billets to Ta Ann Tasmania is the major factor stopping forest protection, according to the official reports on the failure to reschedule logging operations. Forestry Tasmania is targeting areas rich in this wood supply, which equates to preferentially targeting high conservation value forests. Furthermore Ta Ann Tasmania received wood from areas containing old growth forest, as defined by the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA), on at least 35 occasions throughout 2009-2011.

that are sourced from the logging of old growth forests, high conservation value forests, and forest with recognised World Heritage values in Tasmania. (This information courtesy of taann.net)

Where?

Mount Mueller is a spectacular mountain located near the Styx Valley, Southwest Tasmania. The Weld, Styx and Florentine rivers all flow from this iconic mountain. While the mountaintop is protected in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, the pristine ancient forests at its base remain under threat from industrial scale logging. The Tree Top Watch Spot lies in the heart of these forests. This area of forest is known to Forestry Tasmania as “TN044B.” We have affectionately named it “Julia’s Forest.” Named after Prime Minister Julia Gillard. She is, after all, responsible for the life of this forest. On the day she signed the Intergovernmental Agreement, making a promise to protect this forests, she became its guardian. Julia will be accountable for every tree that falls in this forest. Julia’s Forest is a prime example of Tasmania’s spectacular and unique forests. The ridges are lined with giant Eucalpyts, the tallest flowering plant on earth. Steep fern gullies are bursting with tree ferns, sasafrass, leatherwood and other Tasmanian rainforest tree species. Unique and threatened wildlife have been found in Julia’s Forest, including Tasmanian Devils, Spotted Tailed Quolls and the unique Tasmanian White Goshawks. The waterways in this forest are also home to a rare and threatened Hyrdrobiid snail. The terrain is so steep in this forest that the loggers need to use specialised cable logging machinery. This is despite the historical land-slips that have occurred in the area. This type of logging causes irreparable damage to the soil and waterways.

Who? Miranda Gibson The wood used by Ta Ann cannot be described as eco-friendly in any way.

Miranda Gibson is one of Tasmania’s most committed front-line forest campaigners. She has been a core member of the grassroots environment group Still Wild Still Threatened for over five years, living high in the trees at Camp Floz, a blockade in the Upper Florentine Valley. Miranda has been the media spokesperson for Still Wild Still Threatened for the past year and half.

Ta Ann has failed to ensure that their contract be supplied from outside the crucial forest areas, including such icon- “On the 14th of December 2011, conservationist Miranda Miranda is a qualified ic areas as the Weld, Styx Gibson climbed a rope to the top of the tree and vowed to high school teacher, and Upper Florentine Valspecialising in Study of leys. Instead the source stay untill the forest is protected.“ Society and Environof their wood has been ment and English. She extensively misrepresented. Ta Ann’s wood supply has laughably has put her career on hold to dedicate herself to the campaign to been described as a plantation-based supply. protect Tasmania’s forests. In Tasmania, where Ta Ann is at least forced to admit that their wood supply comes from native forests, they continue a misinformation campaign focused on the fact that they process wood of small dimensions. This material has often originated from high conservation value forests, which were destroyed to fulfill Ta Ann’s requirements, but they imply that the forests were all regrowth and of no conservation value . Ta Ann has misled its customers in Japan and Europe by falsely promoting some of its Tasmanian products as ‘environmentally friendly’ plywood. Ta Ann, their partner SMKC, and their Japanese customers claim that these ‘eco-products’ are sourced from plantations and forests that have been replanted after logging. However, the reality is that Ta Ann is processing and selling timber products

Miranda was one of 13 forest campaigners who were targeted by woodchipping giant Gunns Ltd when the company attempted to sue these activists for protesting at a woodchipping facility. The case was eventually dropped after about two years. In 2008 Miranda was one of two activists assaulted by logging contractors in a vicious attack that was caught on film and made international headlines. Undeterred, Miranda has worked with other Still Wild Still Threatened campaigners to monitor wildlife in Tasmania’s threatened forests using remote-sensor cameras. Their work has documented the presence of threatened species including Tasmanian Devils and Spotted Tailed quolls inside areas scheduled for logging.

Dating Death

Death made for a pretty strange boyfriend. I mean, he was nothing like any of my other boyfriends. He could appreciate life without having to always run off to a strip club or to check out his buddy’s new Corvette. But, he was always so freaking busy. We’d be in the middle of some heavy petting, and he’d be like, “Shit, some dude just slipped in a bathtub.” Apparently a lot of dudes slip in the bathtub. I made him put his scythe in the coat closet whenever he came over. It made me nervous. The cloak was fine. The way it covered just most of his face was pretty sexy. My friend Allison said it was creepy as hell, but at the time, I thought it was hot. Allison wanted to know where I met Death. It was in a movie theater, I told her. A lady in front of me was shoveling popcorn in too fast. She started choking. At first there was this crazy coughing and hacking and then nothing, just all this kicking, and writhing, and I came over and gave her the Heimlich, and the popcorn flew out of her trap and into some guy’s face, and actually the guy was Death, and isn’t that funny? Allison agreed. Yeah, that’s funny. She still didn’t want to go on a double date with us. “What does he eat anyway?” was her excuse. “Death doesn’t really eat,” I told her. “But he likes to smell my food. He really digs cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries. Summer fruits you know. He hates it when I eat spaghetti or hot dogs.” “Well I don’t think I want to sit around some dumb restaurant with your creepy boyfriend sniffing your fork.” “Well,” I told her, “at least one of us has a boyfriend.” She hung up. Once I called Death “Grimmy,” but he didn’t like it all that much. He told me he was trying to be happy, that’s what I was all about. I was really confused. Was I just a way to improve his image? He said, no, not at all. He didn’t understand why I had to take it like that. He grabbed my hand with his hand bones. I said would it kill him to wear gloves every once in a while? The next night he brought exotic fruit and roses. I ate

a passion fruit, waving the spoon in front of him. He moaned. I fingered the edges of his cloak and asked if I could just please, just once, just see… He jumped up all fast and said that some drunk slammed his car into a tree. He didn’t come back. Allison said it was only a matter of time. Allison asked how long did I think it was going to last anyway. I told her forever, like forever, forever. Allison said maybe that wasn’t really fair. She was right, but I couldn’t help stalking out at hospitals and senior homes. I ran into him while he was ushering a woman out of a burn unit. Now is not a good time, he told me. I apologized to the dead burned woman, but she said it was ok. I told him I missed him. I told him we could keep it casual. He told me he didn’t know what he was thinking in the first place. I asked for one last kiss. He gave it to me on the cheek, and then he took the burned woman’s hand. Allison tried to set me up with this guy from her office. He was gorgeous, with beautiful skin, and rich hair, but he ate liver with onions and talked about stupid crap like technology and interest rates. It wasn’t ever going to be the same. Allison said that at least I wouldn’t be afraid of dying when my time came, and I asked her if she was kidding, because that was going to be pretty awkward.

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Celebrating 40 Years of Indigenous Advocacy

Our Partners

world aware of this process of destruction, and to try to stop it… Cultural Survival found itself, from the beginning, doing research on alternative development, how to promote Indigenous rights, and on the prospects for multiethnic societies,” wrote David Maybury-Lewis.

Indigenous Peoples are often thought of as the primary stewards of the planet’s biological resources. Their sustainable ways of life have contributed to the protection of the natural environment. It is no coincidence that 95 percent of the top 200 areas with the highest and most threatened biodiversity are found on Indigenous territories. Indigenous communities and the environments they maintain are increasingly under assault from mining, oil, dam building, logging, and agro-industrial projects. Indigenous Peoples resist this invasion with tremendous courage and skill, but their protests are too often ignored by governments and corporations.

Today, the organization promotes the rights of Indigenous communities around the globe and is headed by Suzanne Benally (Navajo and Santa Clara Tewa).

Called Tribal Peoples, First Peoples, Native Peoples, Indigenous Peoples constitute about 5% of the world’s population. There are approximately 370 million Indigenous people in the world, belonging to 5,000 different groups, in 90 countries worldwide.

Our History

Beginning in the 1960s, as governments all over the world, especially in the Amazonian regions of South America, sought to extract resources from areas that had never before been developed. The drastic effects this trend had on the Indigenous Peoples underscored the urgent need to bring attention to human rights violations. To address this need, Cultural Survival was founded in 1972 by Harvard University anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis and his wife Pia to assist Indigenous Peoples in their struggles. “On March 2, 1972, my husband David Maybury-Lewis [1929–2007], Evon Z. Vogt Jr., Orlando Patterson [all social scientists at Harvard], and I opened the first Cultural Survival office,” recalls Pia Maybury-Lewis. “We were located on the fifth floor of Harvard’s Peabody Museum, and we had no heat, two chairs, and a phone. ” Cultural Survival was founded “to bear witness to a genocidal threat, to make the

Our Mission

Cultural Survival works toward a world in which Indigenous Peoples speak their languages, live on their land, control their resources, maintain thriving cultures, and participate in broader society on equal footing with other peoples. We provide advocacy to amplify Indigenous voices around the world and provide support of their efforts to strengthen communities. All of the work is predicated on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 2007, after 25 years of negotiation, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This document, which was created by Indigenous representatives working with government representatives, is the fundamental document spelling out the distinctive rights of Indigenous Peoples. These include the right to live on and use their traditional territories; the right to self-determination; the right to free, prior and informed consent before any outside project is undertaken on their land; the right to keep their languages, cultural practices, and sacred places; the right to full government services, and, perhaps most significant, the right to be recognized and treated as peoples.

“It is our goal to become a world leader in advocacy for Indigenous Peoples rights to their land, languages and cultures,” says Suzanne Benally. “We fully intend to continue our efforts in creating a world in which Indigenous Peoples speak their languages, live on their lands, control their resources, hold on to their culture, and whose rights are honored in participating in broader society. We believe this entails deliberate collaboration. It is all about building bridges.” Our programming includes mounting advocacy campaigns to stop environmental destruction and abuses of Native Peoples’ rights, and working on the ground in Indigenous communities, always at their invitation. Programming also includes support and expansion of Indigenous owned and operated community radio, and support and advocacy for community based language revitalization programs. Cultural Survival also publicizes Indigenous Peoples’ issues through the Cultural Survival Quarterly available online and in print.

Cultural Survival also launched The Language Gathering website (http://languagegathering.org/), as a free resource to all language programs in North America, and collaborated on the Our Mother Tongues website (http://ourmothertongues.org), which educates the public about the issues of language loss and the importance of language revitalization.

Our Guatemala Community Radio Program

Cultural Survival is partnering with Guatemalan nongovernmental organizations to legalize community radio and strengthen a network of 80 community radio stations across the country, many of which broadcast in one or more of the country’s 23 indigenous languages. We provide training and support to local volunteers who run each station. The stations broadcast news, educational programming, health information, and traditional music, all reinforcing pride in Mayan heritage.

This past summer, Cultural Survival joined forces with the Recovering Voices Initiative at the Smithsonian Institution to facilitate Our Endangered Languages Program endangered language revitalization by producing a conference on The world’s languages are disappearing at a rate even faster than radio programming in Indigenous languages. “Our Voices on the that of biological diversity, with more than half of the world’s 7,000 Air: Reaching New Audiences Through Indigenous Radio” involved predicted to disappear in the next 90 years. Indigenous languages three Smithsonian partners - the National Museum of Natural Hiscarry unique philosophies, histories, ceremonies, and irreplacetory , the National Muable environmental seum of the American knowledge of biodiver- “Indigenous languages carry unique philosophies, histories, Indian and the Center sity accumulated over ceremonies, and irreplaceable environmental knowledge of for Folklife and Culmillenia. tural Heritage. The biodiversity accumulated over millenia.” conference brought In the United States, together Indigenous more than 70 of the reradio producers and radio professionals from Canada, Colombia, maining 139 Native languages could fall silent in the next 5 years El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru and the US unless immediate action is taken to teach them to younger gener- to share resources and knowledge from experiences in their comations of tribal citizens. munities. Through workshops and conversations, radio producers were able to develop new materials for their community radio proOur program partners with tribes to help develop the resources gramming. Cultural Survival is now developing a national radio sethey need to do just that: to teach their language to their children. ries telling the story of the world’s endangered languages. Our partners include; the Euchee Language Project, Sapulpa, OK, the Sauk Language Program, Stroud, OK, the Northern Arapaho Our Global Response Program Language Lodges, Arapaho and Ethete, WY, the Wopanaak LanWe conduct international advocacy campaigns with Indigenous guage Reclamation Project in Mashpee, MA; and the Alutiiq Musecommunities that are facing environmental threats from mining, um Language Program in Kodiak, Alaska. dams, logging, and other extractive industries operating without consent on their territory. The program also conducts on-theSupport from Cultural Survival has paid for Native language imground investigations to support communities’ efforts to protect mersion education activities and materials such as master-apprentheir resource and environments. Global Response provides vistice teams, preschool and kindergarten classroom equipment, lanibility to these campaigns through traditional media approaches, guage grammar and teaching books, youth after-school programs, social media, various organizational partners, and promoting the and summer camps. campaign to the Cultural Survival community.

Our Free, Prior and Informed Consent Initiative is strengthening Indigenous Peoples’ capacity to implement free, prior and informed consent by increasing awareness and understanding of this right through community media and community exchanges. Building on Cultural Survival’s successful community radio program in Guatemala, we are producing and distributing a series of radio programs on topics related to free, prior and informed consent to inform Indigenous listeners about their rights and working with communities to develop their own guidelines, based on their unique experiences and cultural perspectives, to build capacity, reinforce self-determination, and assist communities to organize to defend their rights. Developing appropriate context-based guidelines will further strengthen community awareness and understanding of those rights.

Our Work Needs Your Support Why is Cultural Survival important? In the words of our Board Member Grand Chief Edward John (Tl’azt’en), “Most people are not aware of Indigenous Peoples’ issues …[organizations like Cultural Survival] have a responsibility to continue to talk about these issues...to bringing forward a greater awareness and bringing other advocates forward.”

Won’t you become an Indigenous ally today?

Our Cultural Survival Bazaar Program We work to strengthen Indigenous cultures by providing a venue for the sale of art and crafts made by Indigenous artisans. The sale of Visit www.cs.org to learn how to get involved. crafts perpetuates the artistic traditions which are culturally significant to many Indigenous communities, provides capital to Indigenous communities, and provides sustainable income to individual artisans and their families. Since 2006, the Cultural Survival Bazaars have generated over 3 million dollars for Indigenous artisans, performers, fair trade, and other projects benefiting Native communities.

“Consciousness is only possible through change; change is only possible through movement.” -Aldous Huxley

Unfuck The World. We Are Many. We Can Do It. It started on 9/11/2006. Just for fun, we put the motto “UNFUCK THE WORLD” on a couple of shirts to wear them to a local event. The response was unbelievable. Total strangers smiled at us, gave us thumbs up, people crossed the street just to tell us: “Great motto!”

of the profit to these organizations. Our motto: Changing The World, One T-Shirt at a Time.

The message is spreading; our Unfuck The World t-shirts and stickers can be seen throughout the US and some have made it as far as Australia, Canada, Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, Iceland, Egypt, And then a friend said the magic words: “You Norway, Germany, Italy, Austria, India, Brazil, New should sell those shirts!” Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, France, Spain and the U.K. That sentence hit like a hammer. Yes, we should! We will! Literally overnight, we started a company If you are already the proud owner of one of our and called it Change The World T-Shirts. shirts, please email us a picture of you wearing it, so we can put it up on our website, or just send We decided to offer people who buy one of our us your feedback; your suggestions and ideas are t-shirts a choice of charities, and to donate part welcome!

KickStarted Out Of Poverty When we were deciding which charity was going to be the benefactor of the One Miracle At A Time Project’s first issue, KickStart The Poor are Not Victims came up immediately. The staff at OMAAT has extensive experiTo define people by their conditions rather than their qualities is ence working with international NGO’s whose approach to fightdehumanizing. When you look past the poverty, you see abilities, ing the world’s worst poverty varies. We’ve all come to agree that resources, and desires. The poor are extremely hard-working and the “teach a man to fish” method is far more effective then handentrepreneurial--they must be in order to survive. They don’t want ing out temporary aid. What we love about Kickstart is they unor need to be rescued. They want an opportunity to create a betderstand that a man will learn how to fish if he’s hungry enough, ter life for their families. but he needs a fishing pole. We concur with KickStart that the poorest people on this planet do not see themselves as victims, The Number One Need of the Poor is a Way to Make Money. and they are not sitting Everyone today lives around waiting for our a cash economy. “The poor are extremely hard-working and entrepreneurial-- in handouts. In fact, those When you have cash, on the bottom poverty they must be just to survive.” you can get food, waline are most likely to ter, shelter, medicine, seize an opportunity to work hard and generate income, if given and other basic necessities. If you don’t, you can’t. It is that simthe chance. ple. The cause of poverty is a lack of money, so what a poor Our vision is to use the profits of this publication to help fund person needs most is a way to make more money. the rejuvenation of those who are suffering the most. This is why we’re aiming the efforts of our first issue towards rural farmers. Individuals. Not Communities. According to KickStart, 70% of the 1.1 billion people who live on The poorest people in the world are not so different from the rest less then $1 per day are rural farmers. KickStart looks for busiof us. They will take care of their own family’s needs before they ness opportunities that can be started with no more than a few will commit themselves to efforts to better their communities. The hundred dollars; therefore, making a living becomes accessible to developing world is littered with broken-down and abandoned thousands of people who have access to KickStart products. Afcommunally-owned assets. It is a case of the “tragedy of the comter the agriculture tools are designed and manufactured, a supply mons.” If “everyone” owns something, then in reality no one owns chain is created, and the product is sold to farmers who are eager it. No one is responsible for its care and maintenance. Individual to start making a livable wage. Through Kickstart’s extensive imownership is the key to sustainable economic development. pact monitoring data, they’ve found that 80% or more of pumps bought are used to create jobs and income. The same research The Majority of the Poor are Rural shows less than 30% of pumps given away are used to create a Worldwide, over 70% of the 1.1 billion people who live on less business. The KickStart model creates three times more small than $1 per day are small-scale rural farmers who are trying to businesses than the giveaway model. scrape out an existence on an acre or so of unproductive land. In According to Kickstart’s data, this model generates $15 worth of profit for every $1 dollar donated. So, after we invest $7500 into this model, we will have created $112,500 in profit for some of the people who are struggling most in this world. Congratulations! And thank you so much for helping us with this project. KickStart Info Lessons Learned To build a solution that works, it is valuable to know what does not work. KickStart founders Nick Moon and Martin Fisher spent many years in traditional aid programs that had little lasting effect on the people they were trying to help. Their critical and scientific evaluation of these failures helped them build what would become KickStart.

Sub Saharan Africa - despite the more visibly shocking conditions in the urban slums - over 80% of the poor are rural farmers. Clearly if we are going to tackle extreme poverty we have to tackle rural poverty. High Quantity = High Quality The world’s poor deserve high-quality, long-lasting tools and other products. We may have grown accustomed to products with short life spans, but the poor need reliable tools that can be easily maintained and repaired with readily available replacement parts. Production by decentralized artisans results in inconsistent quality. But by centralizing production in the most sophisticated factories available, you get consistent high-quality production.

Sell Don’t Give Those who buy the tools are more likely to use them than those who are given them. This is true regardless of where you live or how wealthy you are.

It’s All About the Supply Chain The greatest invention will have little impact if it does not get to the people who need it. This is especially true when inventing for the developing world. A private sector profit-making supply chain is the most cost-effective and self-sustaining way of delivering goods and services to the poor. Giveaways Create Dependency Aid programs that give things away offer temporary alleviation at best. At worst they create dependency and damage the local economy. Giving things away is unfair. Who decides who gets the gift and who does not? It is also unsustainable. What happens when the donor leaves? Giveaways make sense in response to a humanitarian crisis, but they are not a long-term or sustainable solution to poverty.

measure our impacts. Every product comes with a one-year guarantee and every buyer fills out a guarantee form when he/ she buys the product. The guarantee reduces the perceived risk of buying the product, and the forms give KickStart a database of all pump owners. From this database, we select a statistically valid sample of recent purchasers. These customers are visited within a month of purchasing the products, before any impacts have been realized, then again at eighteen months, and again three-years after purchase. Difficult. Time-Consuming. Priceless. These visits are done by a team of two, always a man and woman to ensure that interactions with owners and their families are comfortable and culturally appropriate. The initial visit is a challenge. There are no addresses in rural Africa. From the forms, we might know the closest church or school, but the farmers might live far outside of town, miles off

Good Governance Comes From a Thriving Middle Class. Poor governance is a major reason why so many countries languish in poverty. When the majority of a population is desperately poor, it is easy for politicians to buy loyalty. But the loyalty of an emerging middle class is not so easily bought. When they are no longer worried about the survival of their families, they start to demand more from their government. Politicians will need to be more responsive to stay in power. Better policies lead to more investment, which creates more jobs and opportunity. Creating a middle class is the most sustainable way to lift a country out of poverty. Our Impact KickStart Total Impact to Date Impact Report as of June 1, 2012 Pumps Sold: 205,200 • Kenya: 72,300 • Tanzania: 50,200 • Mali: 10,900 Enterprises Created: 133,000 • Kenya: 60,000 • Tanzania: 41,000 • Mali: 9,000 People Moved out of Poverty: 667,000 • Kenya: 298,000 • Tanzania: 205,000 • Mali: 46,000 New Profits and Wages Generated Annually: $113 million Bang for Buck Ratio: 1:15 (dollars earned by farmers for each donor dollar spent) Cost to KickStart to get one family out of poverty forever: $300 Cost per person moved out of poverty: $60 We could base our claims of success on the number of pumps we’ve sold to-date. But this tells us nothing about whether we are meeting our mission--helping people get out of poverty. To know this we have to measure how much more money the buyers of our technologies earn as a result of owning them.

the road. Our impact monitoring teams have to be persistent detectives to find a farmer. Once we track down the farmer, our team will work to build rapport with the farmer. The conversations are long and wide ranging. What do they grow? How much land do they cultivate? What convinced them to buy the pump? We ask the questions in different ways to be sure the responses we are collecting are accurate and honest. From these conversations we are able to get a baseline measurement of family income, health, and education. By the time we are done, we’ve forged a relationship. We have a similar conversation on our repeat visits and compare the change in income and quality of life. This is how we can offer our impact numbers with confidence. It also means we can introduce you to some extraordinary entrepreneurs who have changed their lives with a MoneyMaker Pump. Real Results, Not Proxies The KickStart model grew out of the frustration that Martin Fisher and Nick Moon had with traditional aid and development efforts. They wanted to know that their efforts were creating real, lasting, and cost-effective change. This Impact Monitoring strategy has been an integral part of the KickStart model from the beginning. It is already considered one of the best in the sector, and over the next few years, KickStart will be investing over $300,000 to make it even better!

KickStart has developed a systematic, replicable method to

[Poetry] When body wash mixes with musk? Am I more than the sum of Whatever has tickled the back of my throat lately? Wrapped in dirty laundry and Dave & Busters boxers How could I possibly still be sexy?

Cigarette Winds Victoria Marchiony The wind is smoking my cigarette for me. Blowing smoke Across my eyes’ horizon As my hands write Lies Blow smoke To my word documents Blank, Then full. Named, Deleted. Obsolete feelings I am pollution, Affront to body Mystifying my own vessel— I could be perfect. Purified Perfect or Hedonistic. Tip-toeing through Each moment Mostly to keep an eye out— Eyes misty and grey, Lately. Is that why you recognize me Even through These Precarious clouds? Pulling past As tide does to ash, Gravity, Grave-ly, Scattering, Fragmenting,

Perception.

Do I still smell like a woman,

Is it more about what I take off than what I put on? Am I coming in clear even as I breathe veils? Do I belong Yet? The wind is smoking my cigarette For me. Untitled Thomas Pescatore O! fall from brick-fired sky and soak the earth, I’ve waited with sleeves rolled all day for relief, and tonight barefoot, I watched pure earth and darkness in lingering humid solidity, I felt it bite at my arms and rest there, a heavy contraption plummeting steadily, as one form, as an image obscured by metal and concrete, from above, the rain and below, the rain-O! Drowned America, wandering unaware, virtuous, plain, penitential, Ah-I watched the world flushed away before the night, I followed it swiftly.

Exception Victoria Marchiony I wanted to be the exception, Exceptional. Exceeding expectations so consistently that You were excited to blink ‘Cause it was like waking up next to me. I wanted to be like the first bite of your favorite food. (And you’re a picky eater So as comforting, too).

United By those truths that you said Nimble and Serious Clear skies ahead. I wanted to be the exception. Exceptional. Exceeding expectations so consistently that You were excited to blink. ‘Cause it was like waking up next to me.

I wanted you to be honest and have nothing to apologize for. And as for those compliments you threw my way, I never Wanted those to fade. Because if they could have been trusted, That would’ve meant I’m so fantastic, The friend zone could never hold me. That immediately my light would ignite the boundaries. Burn through veils of reservations Clear the smoke of blurry histories To reveal something so pristine and Sparkly That you would compulsively I’m certain that Thomas Pescatore

Grab and Hold on Tight. Like I was A balloon In flight, Taking you as close to heaven as you’ve been Or imagined. Floating in space. Suspended In moment Lightheaded

each

From failing to breathe. So focused on me That you forget to look down. But when you do you still know solid ground, Your feet are just bigger, Look stronger and Better Navigation gets easy Traffic is trivial. I wanted to be particular. Ephemeral Amorphous Spectacular With Substance and Moisture, Precipitation in drought. But I wanted to flip what being a raincloud is all about Wanted to be silver lining. Cumulatively drifting forward

There is nothing sadder than a suitcase and the inevitable pieces of myself that I leave behind to harden, dry out and crack its wheels. I’ve spent the last four years of my life leaving someone behind. Denied K. Chokoe One day Unheeded: You’ll find yourself And, Because it wont be me Per se. You’ll be punished For refusing me And others alike The freedom to raom. To roost to roar.

Bank Forclosed Sweet Justice

Over the past year, the financial super-giants in this country made unforgivable bets with the homes and savings of the ever-shrinking middle class of the United States. Neighborhoods have been riddled with “Foreclosed” signs, our homes have been taken, our retirement funds lost; the poor got poorer and the rich got richer. There is one story out of Florida that gives us a little bit of ‘sweet justice’ we can all sit back and enjoy. In 2009, Warren and Maureen Nyerges purchased a home with cash in the Naples, Fla. area. Nevertheless, in 2010, Bank of America attempted to foreclose on their home, neglecting the fact that the couple owned the house, and shaking up their lives with the threat of having a giant bank steal it from them.

By Desmond Wolfe

dropped the case and ordered the bank to pay the couple’s legal fees. Five months went by without any sign that the bank would honor the reparations. All phone calls and attempted negotiation went unanswered. So the young law- “There is one story out of yer showed up to a Florida that gives us a local Bank of Amer- little bit of ‘sweet justice’ ica branch with the we can all sit back and a Sheriff’s Deputy, the media, and enjoy.” some repo men with an ultimatum for the bank: pay the full $2,500 in legal fees or lose everything in the bank that’s not bolted down.

After months of fruitless efforts to get a lawyer who would take on the massive bank, they found a hungry After an hour of being locked inside his office, the visyoung lawyer, Todd Allen, who had become an attor- ibly shaken bank manager returned with a check for ney only eight months prior. the full amount. “Having two sheriff’s deputies sitting across your desk and a lawyer standing up behind Allen proved in court that not only did the couple not them demanding whatever assets are in the bank can default on their payments, they never owed any to be intimidating, but so is having your home foreclosed the bank in the first place. The Collier County Judge on, when it wasn’t right,” Allen said.

Little Footprints

Big Steps “My children have the chance to make their own story. The suffering of their past is not what defines them.” Born and raised in the harsh climes of Canada’s Yukon, Morgan Wienberg was no stranger to human fortitude. Throughout her youth, Morgan volunteered with non-profit organizations and developed an all-consuming interest in human rights. In 2010, six months after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, this high school valedictorian traded her snow boots for sandals and set off for the devastated country. What was meant to be a short trip became a calling: Morgan deferred from university and devoted herself to helping Haiti’s children. “Eight-year-old Izaac had been sleeping on a separator in the middle of the road … and was awakened when a police officer started beating him with a metal stick.” Morgan volunteered in an orphanage and found the conditions to be appalling. She witnessed children who were neglected, beaten, and starved. In some cases, children were used as slaves or sold as if they were property. Although it was sorely needed, the children were denied medical attention. Morgan discovered that children had been sent to the orphanage by their parents in the mistaken belief that their children would be offered food, education, and loving care. Morgan began to work towards reuniting children with their families. “Stanley … could not write his own name … Stanley did not even come home with sandals on his feet. He came home with endless stories of horrific treatment and neglect …” In 2011, Morgan co-founded Little Footprints, Big Steps (LFBS) with Sarah Wilson. LFBS strives to provide Haitian children with appropriate shelter, food, and education through strategic projects intended to build sustainable lives. LFBS, now a registered charity, has established its mandate, and now focuses on four main projects: • •

• •

Reuniting children and families: To date, thirty-nine children from the orphanage plus ten street children have been reunited with their families. LFBS ensures that these children have continued access to medical care, education, and nutrition. Outreach workers, in partnership with LFBS, visit these families regularly to ensure positive recovery and growth. Maison Transitionelle pour la Protection de L’Enfance: LFBS operates a transitional safehouse, located in southern Haiti. Currently, two families and nineteen street children find refuge in the safehouse. The safehouse provides intensive, healing care to children in need, while also offering educational opportunities, medical care, and nutritional support. The safehouse nurtures children who were once abused, aiding in their physical and psychological recovery. Continued advocacy: LFBS is a voice for those children who have not yet escaped situations of abuse, slavery, neglect, or homelessness. Through contact with Haitian authorities as well as international child protection agencies, Morgan continues to rescue children from abusive situations, as well as to increase awareness of the negative conditions of many orphanages. Facing the future: LFBS intends to expand its sponsorship program, to work towards the prevention of child exploitation in Haiti, and to offer more self-sustainability projects to families. “When they see you in the streets, they don’t care about you. They think you’re dirty. They look at you like you’re an animal. They beat you.”

Morgan currently lives in Haiti full-time. However, she is visiting Canada over the summer in order to build awareness for Little Footprints, Big Steps and the plight of Haitian children.