Hess Natur & Budiope Childcare in the US market.

More and more companies are joining us in our believe that ecological production and sustainable business are the way to go.

There are a couple of initiatives I would like to share with you. First of all, there is Hess Natur, a 30-year-old German sustainable clothing company entering the US market this summer for the first time. The products blend innovative designs with organic and ecological production methods, from fair labor to green production.

Hess Natur has not only worked with the German CCC in developing a standard for industry "fair wear," but it has also won the Organic Textile Award, and, most recently, the Public Eye Positive Award in 2008.

Check them out at hess-natur.com

The other project, called Budiope Child Care Homes (BUCH) is a Ugandan Community based Organization working to eliminate Poverty in Budiope County (a rural area) in the Eastern region of Uganda.

BUCH is a crafts making project in which members of the organisation are directly involved, as well as community members who we co-opted into the project.

By community members, BUCH calls the biological parents or guardians of the children the organization cares for. The products of these adults, are sold through an online shopping catalog (http://www.budiopechildcare.org). The net income off the sales of the crafts,are directly applied to meeting the material needs of the children, either in their homes or in the orphanages the organization manages.

Gigi Pedraza
www.incakids.org