We have seen and written about numerous examples of businesses that leverage their influence on the public for the benefit of a social cause. One business which has always stood out from the crowd is The Body Shop. Founded in 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick in England, The Body Shop has always stood for ethical business and been a model organization for giving back and supporting causes which help make the world a better place.

Common Soles is fully in support of The Body Shop's latest initiaitve in aiding ECPAT USA and the Somaly Mam Foundation in an effort to stop the sex trafficking of children and young people.

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We are over 50% of the way to completing this initiative which rebuilds the small library and laboratory at the all-girls school in Purchuru, India. This rural school provides education to girls in the region who otherwise would not be able to go to school. Many graduates end up being the first in their family to go to university and/or get jobs in the city.

We are so close to funding this initiative via the sale of the Common Soles Natya and Aiman flip-flops. Help us hit that goal by picking up a pair for yourself or as a gift today! Think Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Graduation present, Wedding party gifts, whatever!

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We are excited to be working on our first US based initiative with the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe in Cape Cod, Massachusetts! It all began when Rao and I thought it would be cool to expand our product offer to closed-toe footwear as well. Moccasins came to mind and we set out on a journey to find a source. Turns out that real moccasins are not only expensive ($100+ because they are handmade from premium leather) but not really all that practical for everyday use by most people. The thin leather sole provides little cushioning, and in our asphalt covered world – they wear out fast. Several consumer brands such as Minnetonka and LL Bean have built expansive product lines of modernized moccasins with shoe like soles which you can get pretty much anywhere these days.

During the process of learning about the American Indian, and traditional American Indian footwear we got quite the history lesson (a nice side benefit of working at Common Soles!). It turns out the local tribe to us here in Massachusetts has a long and proud heritage of working with Quahog shells and crafting them into beautiful pieces of jewelry (I wrote about this on Nov 4th). We met several times with members from the tribe and together came up with the idea of crafting shells into pieces of artwork that can be attached to the top strap of a flip-flop. Not only does the net product look good, but as our friends who have been test wearing them let us know “they are also great conversation starters”. Right on!

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2010 is already shaping up to be a good year for us! Earlier this month we realized the successful completion of our first initiative. The goal was to generate funding to purchase new school books and supplies for the children of the workers in the factory that make Common Soles flip-flops in Vijayawada, India. Check out the details and photos from this event on our initiatives page.

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Rao is back in India working on product and initiatives. We hope to have our first initiative fully funded in the next few weeks while he’s over there so we can wrap it up and get the kids new books!  He’s busy working with the folks over there in assembling that whole process and I hope having some fun while doing so!

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Yesterday, Rao and I spent the day visiting with several members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.  Our goal was two fold: 1)to discover handcrafted footwear related items which we could bring into the Common Soles catalog  2)to learn about the community and what potential initiatives could be funded by the sale of said products via Common Soles.

Our journey was both educational and successful! We met with a kind women who handcrafts jewelery from Quahog shells found along the shores of Cape Cod. She produces amazing and beautiful pieces of jewelery from these shells.  Critical for her is not using any glues, cements, or other non-natural elements in the fabrication of the items. Only natural materials such as silver, leather or sinew.  Below is an exceptional pair of earrings we saw fashioned from quahog shells. Quahog's are an edible clam of the Atlantic coast of North America which boast a hard, rounded shell. The coloring of the quahog varies but the most common have a deep purple marbling effect on the base white shell.  

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Dave and I went to visit the all girls school in Purchuru, to learn first hand how the school operates and what initiatives will make the most sense for the school.  It was quite an amazing experience. All the children seem so bright and happy to receive an education, and the teachers are so very proud of the school and their students.  The girls come from poor families who normally cannot afford to pay for their children education.

The school has been running  on donations and noble intentions for the last 24 years. The school is is practically free for the students, they only collect a paltry 25 cents for the whole year from each student.  Few donors over the years have been sponsoring teachers fees, children's uniforms, children's books and other necessities for the school. One such distinguished gentleman is Mr.Venkateswarlu (Lu) in this photo with Dave and I.

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Dave is on his way back to US. No one would believe that it was his first time to India. He braved the heat, spices, and all the complexities of travel in India with great ease and as any local would do.  Kids just loved him where ever we went and some even thought he was Ricky Ponting the pro cricketer from Australia (although Dave isn't so sure about that after looking him up...). Here is a picture of Dave with the kids from Takkar baba colony in Kurla Mumbai. 

We took autos and rickshaws where ever we could as that is the best mode of transport to the places that we wanted to go. Here are other pictures of him (and I) during his trip from checking out materials in the streets of Delhi to visiting the all girls school at Purchuru to understand the needs of the children there.  We did lots of work while he was here and in the process had tons of fun too. If you talk to him you should definitely ask him about the spice challenge he volunteered for.

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Dave and I have been contemplating about what kind of initiatives we should be selecting that would be most impactful, can be administered directly by us and can show concrete results to customers and others donating money to our initiatives. In this process I met people from www.aasai.org.    

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