Things I Kind of Love

I was perusing Good magazine today, theoretically doing "research" for a story on steak (hard-hitting, I know), when I stumbled upon a service piece about T-shirts, which I tell myself I read because Steve has a T-shirt collection, not because I dig front-of-the-book fluff. They featured eight "T-shirts that make a difference."

The shirt from a company called Rosa Loves caught my eye because it was both affordable ($25) and cute. When I went to the Web site, I fell in love with Rosa myself. The company offers limited edition shirts that support different causes (and by causes, I mean people, like the Sharkar family in rural Bangladesh who live in extreme poverty. "Mr. Girendro Sharkar lived with a growing tumor on his throat," the site says. "He fought this illness until he could no longer eat, drink or speak. Mr. Sharkar passed away leaving behind his wife and five young children in their thatch house with walls patched with newspaper and magazine pages." Rosa Loves stops selling the shirt once enough money is raised for each "cause." Find out more here.


And I read about kiva.org, a microlending site, in Domino. You can buy a gift card for a friend and simultaneously help someone in a third-world country start a business. Once the loan is repaid, the friend can lend the money to help someone else or cash out. I love that idea too.

Here's another, and then I'll stop (I'm getting on my own nerves): Heifer International. Give the gift of a beast of burden. I mean, who doesn't want a water buffalo? And at $250, it sounds like a steal.