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We at Shabby Apple love to help women dress but are also commited to helping women live as well. Thus we are supporting the fight against global poverty by partnering with Accion-a non-profit organization with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need to work their way out of poverty. Shabby Apple donates 5% of its net income to support work with 62 microfinance institutions in 31 countries throughout the world.
With every dress you buy from Shabby Apple, you are helping make a difference in the lives of Women Worldwide.
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In December Accion opened up in Yuanbaoshan city, home to 300,000 people nestled in the midst of China. Traveling to this particular city takes many hours and although it is home to hundreds of thousands of people only few know where it is truly located. With the help of Accion, Li Xiaoyan and her husband,Han Dongdong opened a barbecue restaurant a year ago with a $1,500 loan to see if they can do better than Han's former job at the hospital. Their clients, second-shift coal miners, seem to approve, packing the small restaurant nightly.
Bihar is home to 90 million people, 53 percent of whom are illiterate with a per capita income of just US $160. For years, Bihar has suffered from natural disasters and neglect that have kept its people in crippling poverty. These conditions have deterred many people from setting up businesses in Bihar. Indian widow Parwali Devi supports two children from her vegetable stand located in Bihar. Parwali worked 14 hours a day still only bringing home $1 a day, she saw no escape from the poverty that she lived amongst. Her life was forever changed by a series of micro-finance loans. Today, four loans and two years later, Parwali's business is growing, and with more income, she is now able to feed her family better, more nutritious food and has paid back her loan.
Over the past 20 years Falodun Riskat has made a seven-hour trip journey twice a week to a farm in a neighboring state of Lagos, Nigeria to buy live poultry for her business, Ilunu Livestock Venture. In 2008, her life changed when she received a loan from Accion in the amount of US $840 to expand her poultry business acquiring more animals and reducing the number of trips taken to Lagos. With this loan, Falodun now has more time to care for her two children, and while she did not go to school herself, she is making sure her children do.
