Interview: Bea Johnson On Her Personal Crusade For The Zero Waste Home

Bea Johnson is taking the zero waste movement to a new level in Mill Valley, Ca.  She doesn’t just want to “reduce, reuse and recycle.”   Her goal is to get rid of packaging and waste altogether.

” I’ve learned that the less I have, the easier it is.”

Her philosophy is to love, use, and know everything in her household and her motto “Refuse, refuse, refuse!”    She says people aren’t willing to sacrifice today for a better future.  Her Be Simpler business helps clients and friends make their lives less cluttered and wasteful.

Cheese, meat, and olives stored in jars that Bea brings to the store

Everyday I notice packaging that is becoming more and more difficult to open and dispose of.  I wrote a short post last year on Bea and didn’t have the chance to speak with her.   That story keeps getting a lot of interest on the EYE.

I had many questions for Bea from how she shops successfully with jars to what it’s like managing a zero waste house with a husband and two sons.  We got to talk recently so she could explain to me just how she does it.   And it’s quite amazing… 

Interview: Siena Anstis On The Growing “Women Of Kireka” Jewelry Business

Siena Anstis, pictured above on Lake Bunyonyi in Uganda,  began the “Women of Kireka” jewelry-making project in 2008 in Kireka near Kampala.  Women with a talent for beading were working in the stone quarry there under arduous conditions.  They had fled from the northern part of Uganda during a brutal war where their husbands were killed and children abducted.

A strong believer in human rights’ advocacy, Siena joined with Project Diaspora to help 20 women from Kireka turn their beading talents into a profit-making venture through the power of social media and the internet.

Photos on this blog were taken by Siena and Kim Bilmer.

“These women faced almost insurmountable obstacles but they have a tremendous ability to adapt.  They are the voice of this business and are making it all possible.”  Siena Anstis

Social media in the name of Twitter led me to Siena.  I read a tweet by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof where he wrote he’d bought all his Christmas presents early from the “Women of Kireka.”   So I got to wondering just who and where these creative people were.  And that search led me to my conversation with Siena in Montreal…

Interview: Jessica Posner On Building The First Free School For Girls In A Kenyan Slum

Jessica Posner is doing extraordinary things in a place called Kibera, Kenya.  It’s the largest slum in Africa with 1.5 million people living in squalid conditions lacking running water and electricity.

Most of the 500,000 girls under 18 in Kibera don’t get the chance to go to school.  But Jessica is making it her mission to provide free education for as many of them as she can.

Starting from square one, she and her co-founder Kennedy Odede worked nonstop to establish the Kibera School for Girls in 2009.   Their nonprofit “Shining Hope for Communities” is also opening a health care clinic there in November.

“The deck is so stacked against these people that I care about.  But I see moments of transformation, and I would do anything to help them.”

Jessica Posner

I learned about this remarkable 23-year-old graduate of Wesleyan University from Echoing Green, a global nonprofit that awards seed funds to social entrepreneurs working on bold ideas for social change.  

UPDATE 6/16/11–Jessica opened the Johanna Justin-Jinich Community Clinic  last November which Jessica tells us has already seen over 3,000 patients.  It specializes in providing primary health care for women and children.  The center is in the name of a friend, an advocate of helping those in need and whose life was taken in a campus shooting. 

I reached Jessica in Kibera working on her various projects and wanted to ask her how she ended up in Kenya launching such groundbreaking programs.    And how was she able to start the free girls’ school?…

Interview: Susan Burton, CNN Hero Of The Year Finalist, On Prisoner Reentry

Susan Burton is the founder of an award-winning reentry program for female ex-offenders in South Los Angeles.   To date,  her non-profit organization “A New Way of  Life” has  helped more than 500 women once incarcerated get back on their feet.

Susan knows how difficult life can be.  After her 5-year-old son was accidentally killed in 1981, she ended up in prison six different times.   She got clean in 1997 and never looked back.

This year she was nominated to be CNN’s Hero of the Year and is now one of the final ten candidates from more than 100 countries.   The winner is decided in November by people who vote online here.   The total prize is $125,000.

I interviewed Susan eight years ago for womensenews.org.  I sensed then she was someone with very special talents.  When I heard about her recent success, I was thrilled for her and wanted to find out about this Hero of the Year nomination and how her reentry program was doing.

” I just thought if I could help a few women like me who were trapped come back home to South LA, that was my goal.  It just sort of took on its own steam and synergy”….     Susan Burton

When I spoke to Susan, she told me she was on her way to Harvard University.    She’ll explain…