One of the greatest things about our work at Holstee is being able to connect with other entrepreneurs following their passion and seeking to make the world a better place. We are so inspired and amazed by the beautiful people who are blowing our minds with their creative innovations, empowering ideas, and genuine love for the work they wake up to every morning.

Saba Gul is a wonderful example of the people that we are taking about. With a passion for the education and empowerment of young girls worldwide, Saba co-founded BLISS, Business & Life Skills School. Since 2009, BLISS has been empowering grils in rural Pakistain to claim their education, gain life skills, realize their potenial, and lift themselves and their families out of poverty. 

While many girls worldwide cannot stay in school due to the financial and familial pressures they face, BLISS allows for financial incentives that make it possible for girls to be educated and make money at the same time. These incentives are supplied by profits made from the beautiful handmade bags that the girls design and create themselves. Embracing the reality that a hand up is more effective and sustainable than a hand out, BLISS is truly an amazing example of change that endures. 

We are so impressed by Saba and the wonderful opportunities that she is helping to provide for girls in Pakistan. To discover more about the great work BLISS is doing, check out their website and this 4-minute wonderful clip that was aired as an NBC Nightly News Special. You can also see the beautiful bags made by the girls here (I think this one is my favorite :).

Need I say more? 

I hope this girl never loses her pure sense of exploration, truthfulness and academia. 

An idea just struck me... a while back, I wrote about our wasteful use of many backyards, wishing there was incentive for people to build and sustain local gardens and sources of produce. Adding to that pipe dream, I never learned about gardening or creating local produce or organic food when I was in school. Could you imagine how our sense of health and wellness as a nation would change if we introduced sustainable farming and gardening techniques to our children when they hit middle school? And I don't mean just a quick crash course on what a greenhouse is or how to plant a flower. I'm talking a full blown semester or year of in depth analysis and instruction on how to start and maintain a local soure of produce.

The kids could start a local farmers group within their school and talk about food, ecology and nutrition, and they could put what they learn to practice by maintaining a mini-farm/garden at or around school. By the time they reach high school, they'll have a solid base of experience and information which will in turn enable them to make more well-informed choices regarding their future diet and health and hopefully allow them to keep the cost of their healthcare low. 

Might be a pipe dream, but I had to get that out there. Would love to hear people's thoughts here or on Facebook. 

Funny enough, I also don't remember learning how to manage money in elementary school, or even high school for that matter, and I suppose it's not a coincidence where we are as a nation today in that regard either. 

Which potato would you rather eat? :D 

 

An awesome guest post by our good friend @NiamhHughes. Thanks for sharing with us Niamh! 

Girls Who Rock is an epic concert taking place this Friday in NYC (but has a global presencevia UStream) supporting She's the First, a non-profit helping girls in the developing world be the first in their families to graduate. This Friday, June 10th the strongest voices in technology, entertainment, and design will come together under one roof (at Gramercy Theater), to fundraise for girls’ education worldwide and more specifically the sponsorship of 42 girls at the Arlington Academy of Hope in Uganda. To answer the FAQ, Why not the boys? Because of the 130 million youth out of school in the world, 70% are girls.

In Uganda, only 23% of school girls will make the jump from primary school to secondary. That means that out of a classroom of 35, only 8 girls will enter high school -- so when John and Joyce Wanda, an American couple, wanted to make a difference in their home country, they knew exactly which area to target. The couple formed Arlington Academy of Hope (AAH), a not-for-profit organization to help children in rural Uganda to reach their full potential.

Aside from this concert having a bad ass line up, a special robotic guest will host the show!!

Data is an aspiring robot actor, best known for his standup comedian exploits at the TED conference series and on stage in Brooklyn. Data caters his jokes, animation level, and interactivity to audiences using online learning techniques. Data was created by roboticist Heather Knight, who runs the Marilyn Monrobot company. He’s working on an extensive repertoire of robot pickup lines and enjoys engaging in banter on Twitter and long walks on the beach. Just keep him away from the water.

If you're not in NYC, worry not, as you can sponsor up to 42 girls in Uganda with a donation online via CauseVox. You can give as little as $11 to honor a grad in the Class of 2011, and pay it forward for a girl in Uganda to reach that same graduation milestone. You can also watch the show live on Ustream at 8:30 pm (EST), Friday, June 10th, 2011. 

Get your tickets for GIRLS WHO ROCK, featuring Sister Sledge, JoJo, Nikki Jean, KimberlyNichole, Eddy, with DJ Kiss and emcee Touré, with special guest Data the Robot at girlswhorock2011.eventbrite.com. Please also share this with your own networks - spread the word!! 

Source: Girls Who Rock, She's the First, Cynthia Hellen and Tammy Tibbetts. 

 

 

 

The Domino Project is on a mission to change the way books are built, sold and spread, all in the blink of an eye. Slashing red tape, fluffy margins and the typical protocol of publishing, The Domino Project (founded by Seth Godin @ThisIsSethsBlog and spearheaded by the poetic @heyamberrae) is providing a launchpad for ideas worth spreading. They are on the pulse of literary triumph, inspiration and evolution, and we had the pleasure of collaborating most recently on a limited edition deluxe hardcover release of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance.

In classic Domino Project style, we worked hard and fast to produce a custom cover for the book and also threw in a five-pack of custom-made greeting cards produced from 50% elephant poo and 50% recycled paper.

The Result? The limited edition book sold out within hours of being available on Amazon, with super positive reviews all around.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson often encourages people to dismiss the standards of society and to follow one's individual heart, we often discuss and reaffirm the standards we believe in, knowing we only have ourselves to answer to in the end.

It's an honor to be part of such a timeless read and we have everyone to thank at the Domino Project for an incredbile collaboration.

A stimulating Q and A with Ralph Waldo Emerson below- 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Self-Reliance: The intellect is vagabond, and our system of education fosters restlessness. Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home. We imitate; and what is imitation but the travelling of the mind?

Question: Society's quick pace makes it hard to focus and concentrate. What can one to do achieve serenity today?

Emerson: Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.

Q: Many in society are afraid of of being themselves and speaking authentically. Why do you think that is?

Emerson: Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say ‘I think,’ ‘I am,’ but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.

Q: What is the key to happiness with one's work and occupation?

Emerson: A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. Do your work, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing.

Q: There are so many popular opinions in society today. How should we know whom to listen to?

Emerson: Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Q: What advice do you have for creators and artists who don't think they create original work?

Emerson: Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him.

 

 

Ever since I spent my first year out of college teaching at a charter school (which is essentially a privately funded public school operating outside the state defined curriculum) in South Central, Los Angeles, I have become more and more interested in systems of education, particularly within the United States (...the wealthiest country in the world). 

The way I see it, teachers and students are more valuable than market shares, stocks, IPOs and GDP, as teachers and students are people. Yes, my rationale is that simple.

Of course, market share and stocks and IPOs and GDP are produced by people, educated people, and so investing early in young people eventually pays itself back. But the road of human economic potential, contribution and worth is long and windy and I'd rather not go there today. 

It pains me to realize that most well educated, passionate and ambitious people will choose professions outside of education, as I hold education and society's youth as the most valued resource in any culture, most often because a teaching career is not based, nor awarded, on merit, but rather patience and one's ability to put up with nonsense and bad parenting. 

I left education because I was too exhausted, stressed and frustrated by the system, but am thrilled to see successful people like Salaman Khan make significant contributions that keep the conversation going as to how we can improve education in the richest country in the world. And for the record, I myself want to again play a part in further developing greater education. I just need to find what I can give. 

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help.

We are very proud to announce, that we completed two more microloans through Kiva.org this week! This round we lent to the "Amigas Unidas Group" from Peru and Elda Tenazoa Upiachihua, also from Peru: The "Amigas Unidas Group"

Here is a little bit of information about the "Amigas Unidas Group": The group has 11 members, all of them running their individual sewing business. Jadee Noemi is the president of the group. She is 30 years old and has two children. Jadee has a small workshop in her home. She started off in the workshop of a neighbor and there she learned how to mend and at the same time she started to study how to cut and sew. With the first earnings from sewing, Jadee was able to buy a sewing machine with which she made shirts to sell. Today she makes t-shirts in greater quantities and will use the loan to invest in material to produce more items. Holstee feels connected to Jadee's story, so we are proud to support her aim to achieve financial stability, which allows her to pay for her kids education. Elda Tenazoa Upiachihua

Elda is 35 years old, married and has two children, both of whom are school-aged and still dependent on her. Elda sells beauty products and gradually she became better known among her customers and residents of the community. She will use the loan to stock her business. We've chosen Elda because we are impressed by her tenacious spirit and wish to get ahead through her own efforts. Kiva.org introduces Elda as a "woman that is happy with the work she does every day and is grateful to the Manuela Ramos Movement for contributing to her meeting her goals and having her dreams come true."