Blog Action Day: How Freelancers Are Saving the World

Photo by JasonRogers.

While we talk a lot about how to better our working conditions and pay at FSw, there is a much bigger world out there than what we see every day. Poverty is an issue that 99.9% of the good people who read FSw don’t have to worry about. But we should be thinking about it, and we can make a difference with our unique skills. And there’s no better time to talk about how we can help those less fortunate than us than with our unique freelancing skills than on Blog Action Day.

There’s always the option of donating money to those less fortunate, but as freelancers we offer a lot of skills that are sometimes more valuable than money. We have very specialized talents that can be much more beneficial than a few dollars.

For example, if you’re a web designer or developer, you could help a non-profit or charitable foundation with designs, or a web site. Many of these organizations don’t have the extra money needed to stay competitive in the online world. Many need help with branding too, so donating a logo or site designs are always welcome.

Supporting causes that help freelancers in other countries support themselves. Buying fair trade products like coffee is an excellent way to show support. Freelancer’s love coffee, right? Programs like these help eradicate poverty by putting products into a global market where a local market might not sustain them.

In fact, many of these companies that are trying to address the issue of poverty are excellent examples of the freelancing spirit and determination. They’re just entrepreneurs thinking outside the box to create marketplaces and opportunities for those who are less fortunate. Here are some inspirational examples of companies who have taken simple ideas and used them to make the world a little better.

BeadforLife

BeadforLife is a creative organization that allows beader in Uganda to sell their paper bead products in the global market, and provides a scholarship program that gives 100 impoverished Ugandan’s the opportunity to attend a vocational training to teach them a trade to provide for their families.

While this sounds like a lofty and involved organization, it was born from a creative solution. Here’s how BeadforLife got started:

BeadforLife began with a chance encounter between a woman who was sitting near her mud home and the founders, Torkin, Ginny, and Devin. They learned that there was no market for her beads and that the woman worked for a dollar a day in a rock quarry. They admired her paper beads and bought a few. Soon friends began to admire the beads and they realized that there might be a market after all. Classes were held to improve the quality of the beads and develop several different styles of necklaces and bracelets. In North America BeadforLife applied for non- profit status and began to develop it’s unique program of citizen participation in eradicating poverty.

Ethos Water

Ethos Water is yet another example of of an organization that was founded out of an idea and a passion. After working for a stint in South Africa in 2001, Peter Thum decided he wanted to do something about the shortage of water in impoverished areas around the globe. Peter was able to develop a line of water that

Thum founded Ethos in 2001, and had over 150 potential investors turn the idea down before it finally found an investor three years later. In 2005 Starbucks bought Ethos Water, and has since then donated $6.2 million dollars to humanitarian water aid, with the goal of reaching $10 million by 2010.

Ethos Water is an incredible example of having a focused idea, and sticking with it regardless if no one else believes in it.

Poverty Isn’t Solved with One Solution

Poverty isn’t going to end with one one “magic bullet”; a single program or initiative that will stop the world from going hungry. Poverty will be eliminated by many creative programs like BeadforLife and Ethos Water, who are only trying to change a small part of the world.

There are a slew of freelancers and entrepreneurs just like the people behind Ethos Water and BeadforLife who have used their niche skills to make the world a little better. Blog Action Day is exactly the same way. Freelance Switch owners Collis, Cyan and Zen Habit’s Leo Babauta decided that they would change a little piece of the world by focusing in something they knew how to do extremely well: blogging. Freelancers everywhere should take this as inspiration.

Freelancers like you and I are going to change the world.