"Global Girlfriends: How One Mom Made it Her Business to Help Women in Poverty Worldwide," by Stacey Edgar

"Global Girlfriends: How One Mom Made it Her Business to Help Women in Poverty Worldwide," by Stacey Edgar

Seven years ago, Stacey Edgar had a $2,000 tax return and a deep desire to help provide economic security for women in need. She knew that of the 1.3 billion people living on less than $1 per day, seventy percent are women. What she didn't have was a business plan. Or a passport. But that didn't stop her from creating a socially conscious business that has helped poor women in five continents feed their families and send their children to school.

Global Girlfriend has since grown into a multi-million dollar enterprise that specializes in handmade, fairly traded, ecoconscious apparel, accessories, and items made by women all over the world. Global Girlfriends is Stacey's inspiring story of following her convictions, as well as her passionate argument for simple actions we can all take to eliminate extreme poverty. Stacey Edgar refused to be paralyzed by the size of world poverty; she started by taking several small steps, personal responsibility firmly in hand, and never looked back.

I had never heard of Global Girlfriend prior to reading this book.  It's an American company set up to sell products made by women in need from various countries throughout the world.  As mentioned above it was started by a woman who wanted to make a difference and despite starting the "business" with only $2,000 has turned it into a multi-million dollar company that has helped thousands of women.

The book tells of how Stacey started small by helping a few women, and has gradually grown and grown helping many woman.  It shows how just helping one person can translate to helping many in a community.  I loved the different examples of how she helped various woman, as it explains their back story.

I also liked how Stacey had the common sense to make sure what she bought to sell were things that people in America would actually want to buy and use and the quality of these items were what Americans were used too.  Some of the stories told were enough to break your heart at the hardship some of these women had been through.

I liked the chapter, Afterword: and Beyond," as there are multiple websites listed of what you can do to help, also suggestions on what you can do locally.  It does give you food for thought this book.

Stars out of 5 : 5 well worth the read and makes you think.  Although it's an American company a lot of what Stacey says can be applied to whatever country you come from.  I like she doesn't sugar coat what she says and I commend her on what she has done.

If nothing else pop by the Global Girlfriend site and support a great cause.