Coffee for a Cause

Water is one of man’s basic needs in order to survive; however, it is sad that not all in this world are fortunate enough to have access to free clean water, or worse, not even have access to clean water alone. People in Laos are few of those unfortunate ones.

Gratefully, kind-hearted people are putting much effort in order to help people of Laos have access to clean water by launching different campaigns to fund the project. And just today, August 06, 2013, Janelle Kaczmarzewski and her team launched an Indiegogo campaign to help bring 1400 families on the Bolaven Plateau sanitary education and clean water by the end of 2014.

“Laos is the most bombed country per capita in the world,” Janelle Kaczmarzewski, project manager of Jhai coffee house relates. “The US dropped a planeload of bombs on Laos every eight minutes, 24-hours a day, for nine years during the Vietnam War—and they [Laos] were never even in the war.  It is no wonder that Laos now has a clean water and sanitation crisis, as they have been rebuilding for the past 40 years.”

Their project involves launching an Indiegogo campaign to crowd-fund a social business, the Jhai Coffee House. Jhai is the world’s first completely philanthropic coffee roaster and cafe located at the source. All business profits are invested into children’s sanitary education and clean water projects in the local Lao coffee growing community—a coffee for a cause.

“Less than of Lao people have access to safe drinking water,” Kaczmarzewski continued. “Largely preventable diarrheal disease is the second biggest killer of children under five in Laos—many Lao babies die before they reach their fifth birthday.”

They [Kaczmarzewski  and her team] believe that the traditional charity model is broken. Money is raised and spent, and then, it is gone, forcing the organization to once again depend on the inflow of donations. However, they believe there is a better way—that is, to out same charity dollar is put into a [social] business format, and therefore, that same charity dollar can have endless life to do endless good.

To learn more about their project and see how you can help, you can visit their Facebook or Twitter pages, or website at www.jhaicoffeehouse.com.You can also help spread the word about the campaign by clicking here.

See photos and video about their campaign and project below.

You can help by donating/investing for the project or simply spreading the word through social media network.