Last summer, 2011, Kara, Jess, and I along with a handful of good friends went to the All Good Music Festival in West Virginia. A weekend spent with amazing people, amazing music, amazing experiences also happened to include Jess stopping by a vendor’s tent outside the music stage area. Drawn in by poles outlining the entrance stocked with beautiful handmade macrame jewelry, she struck up a conversation with the guy sitting inside the booth, Gregory Sheldon, from Albany, New York. Greg began explaining where the bracelets came from, who made, them, and where her money would go if she bought one. As their conversation continued, stars began to align.

Greg introduced Jess to the Eden’s Rose Foundation, a non-profit started by Greg a few years ago to promote gender empowerment, improve basic health, provide clean water, and support entrepreneurship to small communities throughout Ecuador and in the Himalayas. Naming his foundation after a close friend who had passed away in the states, Greg dove head first into creating a sustainable non-profit built on the principles of trust, honesty, and responsibility. Greg does not have a master’s in non-profit management. He doesn’t have a bachelors. Greg didn’t finish high school, let alone go to college. But when Greg sees people in need, he pours every ounce of his soul into finding a way to help. While telling Jessica all about Eden’s Rose in Ecuador, Jess brought up our plans to be traveling througout South America in the coming fall. “When you’re all in Ecuador, come on down to Tosagua and check out our work!” Of all our plans, or lack there of, througout our trip thus far, this was one we held true on….

To read the rest of the post please visit Dan’s Blog

About Dan:
I am traveling with my wife and her cousin on a 8-9 month backpacking/volunteering adventure from Colombia to Bolivia. I am originally from Baltimore, MD and Kara and Jess are from Bergenfield, NJ. My wife and I are both Naturalists in the states teaching Ecology, Outdoor Ed, and leadership to middle school – university students. I spent 2007-2009 in Senegal, West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and we met Greg and the foundation at All Good last summer.

Click the picture above or visit erfmerchandise.etsy.org  to show your support!!!

The Grateful Dead and the ERF have teamed up to offer a special edition thermodynamic alpaca hooded sweatshirt. The Eden’s Rose Foundation obtained its first alpaca hooded sweatshirt 6 years ago. This sweatshirt was worn by the foundation’s president Gregory Sheldon. It stayed with him during his time in the Amazon jungle, in the Andes, and while working with Tibetan refugees for years in the Himalayas. “I always had my trusty hoodie with me” said Greg . The nature of the alpaca material allows the sweatshirt to function in the various climates. Facilitating the direct trade projects kept the Eden’s Rose Foundation vending at music festivals and tours. Our volunteers have bought many hooded sweatshirts on tour with them and they all shrink. No matter what anyone says. Even if they say they are preshrunk or not. We knew there was a better option out there than $60 hooded sweatshirts that only lasted 6 months. While doing a development project in the Andes, the Eden’s Rose Foundation members crossed paths with the woman that had made Greg’s hoodie so many years ago. The same alpaca sweatshirt that never shrunk or faded and withstood the test of time. The partnership between our organization and this family came at the perfect time. It would help produce much needed funds for the Tosagua Children’s Basic Needs Center that was well underway.

Being a dead head Greg was always thinking of putting a steal-your-face on everything. The inspiration and response for the alpaca hoodies was overwhelming. The Eden’s Rose foundation presented this project to the Grateful Dead, we felt the quality of the unique hooded sweatshirt coupled with our philanthropic mission was far ahead of anything going in merchandising at the time. The band is very receptive to the message behind this and a dedicated relationship has been forged in support. Basic needs access for the most vulnerable children in the world and the protection of the environment and indigenous culture in and around the Amazon rain forest. We are truly honored to be part of the Grateful Dead licensing family.

These hooded sweatshirts come in blue, green, and brown with the Grateful Dead Steely and gray and purple with the dancing bears on it. These hoodies are directly responsible for the care and protection of children under the age of 5 in our basic needs support projects for kids most in need from the country where these sweatshirts are made. The sweatshirts are a warm and stylish way to honor your favorite band!

If you are interested in wholesale ordering please contact us with the form below.

Well we know what fair trade is don’t we?

Its like the clean capitalism. it means we are not doing bad when we buy… right?

Or its more like one aspect of the effects drawn from an act of a purchase is celebrated as at least fair.

Do you often celebrate your not bad deeds? does something not being bad mean that its … Good?

NO! and by no i don’t just mean not yes, i mean NO

OK, in the spirit of political doublespeak and the heart of the fair trade movement,

I just defined direct trade by saying what fair trade is not, or…, wait, OK I think I’ve got it now.

Here is Direct Trade in a nut shell:

It is the belief and hope that we can not only recognize that doing better is possible but than to actually do it. Doing more than what is fair is like improving your self not only by not doing bad but by going forward into good. Direct trade is imagination and trying things that may fail but if they work will be a lot better than just fair.

Lets have an example:

To start at a mutually understood point i regress to the fair trade sample. We have a family living at the subsistence level: Dad, Mom, Brother and two little sisters. They collect chocolate beans, together. its hard work because chocolate beans(cacao), only grow well in about 100% humidity in the shade level of tropical forests (enter dengue, malaria, parasites). they collect these very hard large fruits that need to be split by force with a machete by hand, dad does most of this part. after a process of cutting and picking and than cutting and picking and curing and drying a large pile of collected casings is turned into a small pile of chocolate beans. about a pound per tree per year.

Okay enter Fair Trade…

FT: Hey Dad got the Beans ready?

Dad: sure do 3 months worth and boy are we glad to see you because we sure are hungry and both little sis’s got dengue

FT: ooo that’s tough well we do have the money for the beans

Dad: oh that’s great because we have no other opportunity for income

FT: i know and luckily I’m not going to exploit you… I’m going to pay you no less than just whats fair for one person to make.

Dad: that money will only last for 1 month and because i can only sell this to you and there are no other buyers, i will have 2 months

without the basic life necessity’s and little sis may not make it to the next harvest. but if you say its No Less than Fair i guess its ok.

Lets have a look at this from a different view. lets use our love born human creativity to see this through the eyes of something better than just “not bad”

Okay enter Direct Trade…

DT: Hey Dad hows the family?

Dad: well little sis is all better from the medicine you brought and Mom is doing great in the woman’s craft group you started

DT: well you know your hard work and all those beans really bring a good profit that we use to help you have a better life

Dad: the more beans i gather the beans you have to develop programs to help our community’s most pressing needs and to set up projects that we can continue that let us change the cycle of poverty.

DT: well you have all the folks that want to support something better than just what is fair to thank for that, and all your hard work.

Dad: Brother is going off to teach the kids at the free school that he graduated from, its a perfect circle. being so full of hope our human creativity is inspired and were all finding ways to do better for ourselves and each-other and the community.

DT: well that’s better than fair. now with a small margin of capitol our charity gains from the success of this project we are starting a new program in the next village over, would you like to come help set it up in between harvests?

this gives you a basic idea of Direct Trade.

Its engaging people in there current modality and influencing change in them through the change of the mode itself. teaching crafts and reviving local skills through commerce and trade projects that generates capitol for the peoples work. the capitol made through the sale of the goods produced is than pooled and used to create sustainability, community, and basic needs support projects. like health care clinics, schools, food for the malnourished and skills training and work creating projects that ensure that the malnutrition will stop. through education and hopeful inspiration we can give people back the feeling of value in life that makes it life and not a living death. let me assure you that is the most direct thing you can do or support to bring benefit to your self, a benefit that is more than fair.

don’t believe me? than give it a try and prove me wrong and i will give you the chocolate beans for free.

ASK QUESTIONS. GET INFORMED. GET INVOLVED.

Thank you to all who found it in their heart to give this weekend, particularly Garrett McCluskey who volunteered his time to help run the booth this weekend and his advice to help keep me running period.

One Love

I’m packing the van now….

This great success is due to the long hard work of our friends in the States, our people on the ground, the community, and now the government of Tosagua. The level of convergence being experienced here is unprecedented and the results of our unified focus in helping those children most in need are truly writing a story, our story, of which we may all revel in the success.
Thank you…
In sitting down for a good home cooked meal of rice and plantains at the small wood-plank house of the president of San Ramón yesterday I received many compliments and kind expressions of how god has blessed my work with their community. I would like now to give as I did than credit where it is due, it may be from the spirit of the divine creator that the force needed to do this work was inspired but it came through from the hands, hearts, minds, and movements of all you at home that supported this work. The collective force of your donated time, energy, money and resources is the blood in the body of this project.
Thank you to the community of San Ramón, to the well over burdened government of Tosagua, and to all of you at home in the United States for showing that we are all a united family.
Gregory Sheldon
The Eden’s Rose Foundation

Spanish Translation:

Hola cada uno, estoy detrás en Tosagua y todo está mirando para arriba. Hay justo algo así que especial sobre la primera ondulación del éxito… es casi como las sonrisas enteras del mundo al mismo tiempo, del sol grande para arriba arriba a la suciedad abajo y a toda mientras tanto. Primero del tiempo aquí ha cambiado estaciones. El aire es suave y dulce ahora, pues había sido áspero y unwelcoming. Recuerdo días que camina a través del agua profunda de la inundación de la cintura para trabajar solamente por horas en el calor que ampolla y para dirigir el sol (mosquitos prehistóricos que luchan el tiempo entero). Ahora tenemos un cielo nublado ligero agradable, días del tranquil a trabajar en noches tranquilas para dormir. No puedo expresar cuánto releva esto alguno de las dificultades de nuestro trabajo aquí. Tengo todavía agradecer al alcalde de Tosagua personalmente; sin embargo quisiera comenzar agradeciéndola público por su ayuda de nuestro trabajo aquí. Sobre la última semana Elba, el alcalde de Tosagua, ha acarreado en 7 cargas de suciedad a nuestro centro básico de las necesidades. Para los de usted que pueda ser que inconsciente nuestras necesidades básicas se centre se conoce comúnmente como” arca de Noah”. Este regalo del tiempo y de los materiales y de las horas del trabajo va a ayudar a hacer nuestro centro impermeable a los floodwaters que sobre toma la comunidad por varios meses cada año. Este gran éxito es debido al trabajo duro largo de nuestros amigos en los estados, de nuestra gente en la tierra, de la comunidad, y ahora del gobierno de Tosagua. El nivel de la convergencia que es experimentada aquí es sin precedente y los resultados de nuestro foco unificado en ayudar a esos niños en necesidad están escribiendo más verdad una historia, nuestra historia, de la cual podemos todo el revel en el éxito. Gracias… En sentarse abajo para un buen hogar cocinó la comida del arroz y los llantenes en la casa pequeña del madera-tablón del presidente de San Ramón recibí ayer muchos elogios y expresiones buenas de cómo el dios ha bendecido mi trabajo con su comunidad. Ahora quisiera dar como hice que acreditar donde está debido, él puedo ser del alcohol del creador divino que la fuerza necesitada para hacer este trabajo fue inspirada pero vino a través de las manos, de los corazones, de las mentes, y de los movimientos de todos usted en el país que apoyó este trabajo. La fuerza colectiva de usted donó el tiempo, energía, dinero y los recursos son la sangre en el cuerpo de este proyecto. Gracias a la comunidad de San Ramón, bien al gobierno cargado excedente de Tosagua, y a usted en el país en los Estados Unidos por demostrar que somos todos los una familia unida. Gregory Sheldon la fundación de Rose del Eden

In the mountains all weekend, I was refreshed by the weather, the people, the creek and the support from SolarFest. For all those who stopped by, double big smile ) to you!

In one area we work with a local community support organization, Fundación Manos. Manos has been working with the children around Tosagua for several years, acting as a support for the children who are left unattended. On a daily basis the children are left alone, at risk of being abducted, harmed by the dangers of the natural environment, with no food, no clean water, and no place to go to feel safe and loved. Manos has been working to improve this situation and together we are building Basic Needs Delivery Centers for children five and younger.

The second area we cover is uniquely ERF. We have started a program in the community to provide skills training and jobs to the women in these areas. Currently we teach a free class on macramé weaving. Three classes are taught each day, helping about fifty women learn the craft of macramé. There are over one hundred more women who are ready to take the next course of classes. In addition to learning a skill they can use to earn an income by selling their finished crafts at a market, these women also gain a sense of purpose and community. It is a very motivational and uplifting experience in which the women can recover their self-worth. This program is the axle to the wheels of building a sustainable community.

The evolution of this class came from the direct motivation of Greg and the hard work and talent of Tatiana, his partner. Inspiring hope and self-motivation in the lives of these people are at the core of this adventure. It is most important to us that we do not just bring aid to these communities, but work with them so they will be able to move freely forward to create a sustainable lifestyle for themselves. To paraphrase the ancient saying attributed to Confucius, “Give a person a fish and s/he will eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and s/he will eat for a lifetime.”