Today is the Feast of Saint Nicholas. The day is celebrated, like many other saints days, on the anniversary of his death. Saint Nicholas was born wealthy, orphaned young, became a bishop and spent the rest of his life (and his inheritance) helping the poor and needy. He is famous for throwing bags of money into a window of a poor family, which was used for their daughters dowry, and saved the daughters from a life of prostitution.
That must have been a hard time to live, especially for children. How much have we really changed since then? Today, 152 million children are victims of child labor worldwide. That means 1 in 10 kids is currently in child labor! (Many of these in the sex industry.)
The atrocity of slave labor is rampant. Slaves are used to produce food, clothing, electronics, jewelry, and sports equipment (just to name a few). For a fun way to learn more about modern day slavery (and find out how many slaves are working for you), clink on the link below.
Nobel peace laureate Kaliash Satyarthi is a modern day Saint Nicholas. He has worked tirelessly to eradicate child slavery. He has freed over 80,000 children from slavery. The place where the children are kept until they can be reunited with their families gives the children bread (just the word they use – other food too), play, education, and love. Four things that they have been denied for way too long.
Click here to learn more about Kaliash and whose hands made your stuff, then click “watch the film”. Warning, you can not unsee these images and it will change the way you shop. (Have tissues handy.)
As is our tradition, we celebrated Saint Nicholas Day with our children waking up to fair trade chocolates and candy canes in their shoes!
Feel good that, in your exploration of minimalism, you have already started making changes that will not only change your life, but also the lives of people around the world.
An AMAZINGLY SIMPLE way to purchase less, know who made our items, and save people from slavery.
simply,
bridgette
AMAZINGLY SIMPLE 