false 2009-03-05T11:52:33-08:00 <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I still remember the night in 2004 that I watched a documentary about the Rwandan genocide.&nbsp; I could not shake the fact that 800,000 people were murdered, mostly by machete, and I had paid little attention to it.&nbsp; Before that night I didn&rsquo;t even know where Rwanda was or that a genocide had occurred.<br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I made it a point to learn more about Rwanda and Africa.&nbsp; I learned that a person in Africa dies every three seconds from something that is preventable or treatable.&nbsp; The reason for all these deaths? Poverty.&nbsp; I decided I would try to do something about it.&nbsp; Could I create a project that would change lives?<br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It seemed the best way to help would be to create a business that would provide poverty stricken Africans the means to take care of themselves.&nbsp; Why not start a company that would give ownership to the workers?&nbsp; They could take the profits of their business and feed their families, pay school fees and build houses.&nbsp; They could even save some of this money and start other businesses. &nbsp; Instead of waiting for a hand out they could be empowered to help themselves.<br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The biggest challenge was trying to figure out what to produce.&nbsp; This product needed to be relatively simple to construct, easy to ship and would ideally help the buyer in some way. <br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This business concept kicked around in my head for a couple years.&nbsp; I began to doubt if I was being truthful to myself.&nbsp; Did I really want to try and make a difference?&nbsp; Would I really be able to do this?&nbsp; The answer came in early January of 2007.&nbsp; A friend suggested we produce reusable cloth shopping bags.&nbsp; Africa Bags was born.<br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A cloth shopping bag could be made on a treadle sewing machine that didn&rsquo;t even require electricity. These bags are light enough to be shipped in bulk.&nbsp; We could also market the bags as a solution to plastic shopping bags which use petroleum in their production and create pollution in their disposal.<br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Just 4 months later my wife, Holly, and I were on our way to Malawi, Africa, one of the poorest countries in the world.&nbsp; Training and production started and steadily grew.&nbsp; In 2008, our first full year of bag making, over 4,000 Africa Bags were purchased. <br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The 5 villages of Africa Bags are flourishing.&nbsp; A community center, an orphan care center, a micro-lending program, and fertilizer for village crops are all by products from bag profits.&nbsp; Can a cloth shopping bag change a life?&nbsp; The answer is yes.&nbsp; My life was the first one changed.</p> aFVdokwWWqllvkab8P4pmk false true true 2009-06-02T15:18:22-07:00 0 true 0 false false false 1 Can a Cloth Shopping Bag Change a Life? 2009-06-30T06:39:02-07:00 cJGCWCsZqqllvkab8P4pmk AfricaBags 885 0 dY1Ghod6ZhRBWr3AL8abBw