Earth Friendly Gifts: Empowering the 'Munti Gunung' Community

Journey to one of the driest parts of Bali, Indonesia

Living between Bali and California is truly a blessing where we get to enjoy the best of both worlds. Opening our eyes to different communities has only taught us to be humble and motivate our desire to give back to society. One of the latest project collaboration is one we are proud of because it echoes with our values and mission in supporting and empowering communities who needs it the most. 

1 World Family trekking with the locals for an excursion to Munti Gunung

We partnered up with the beautiful people of Munti Gunung after visiting their village tucked away in the North of Bali, Indonesia. These poor and malnourished families are working under a social enterprise that aims to 'create employment opportunities & improved quality of life for disadvantaged families, the program has also secured a clean & sustainable water supply, as well as access to healthcare & education'. We wanted to learn more about their project and so we signed up for a trek organized by the community themselves. This really helped us to understand their difficulty in getting access to water and seeing the harsh reality of an 8 months dry season. Can you imagine what life would be like without access to water?

A big lake tucked between the Balinese hills, the only source of water for the Munti Gunung community.

The legendary Mount Batur surroundings.

Seeing is believing and through the trekking experience, we learned how the women used to trek for 4-5 hours from their homes to the nearest Lake Batur to collect as much water as they can carry and then trek back the same path to get to their families. Thanks to the 'Future of Children' project they have managed to built water tanks to collect rain water to sustain themselves without having to travel a far and long time to attain water. With a quota of 25 liters per family per day, we trekked through the panoramic sights with our thoughtful minds, imagining what it's like to have to do this everyday not for leisure but for survival.

Our pathfinder aka. guide from the village. She woke up at 4am to get a head start of the trek in order to meet us at 6am. 

Serene sights of the hilly slopes of North Bali along the way giving us a tranquil mind to fully absorb the experience.

Our elderly guide walked on strong and calm, smiling at the younger ones as they struggled to keep up with her pace.

Needless to say, it was an empowering experience both physically and mentally. Upon arrival to the village, we were introduced to a lovely group of women who were hand weaving baskets with their adorable children cuddled in their arms and they fulfilled their motherly duties while hand making baskets in order to earn a living. Their genuine smiling faces melted our hearts and we were so happy to get to know the amazing artisans who would weave our gift baskets.

These women use to be prone to begging with their children on the streets in the urban side of Bali. They now have a means of income to feed their families.

With dedication and talent, the women were taught the art of weaving, spending a few hours in their day to fulfill their job responsibilities.

We learned so much from this expedition and we're glad that we get to share this story. You get the opportunity to help out in making a positive change with the simplest gesture. These gift packs are more than just a gift box, it transcends the stories of a group of women who survive on these jobs in order to sustain their everyday lives. Hand weaving 'lontar baskets' was one of the means of activities in generating income for these women. These organic gift boxes are made from naturally sourced local tall fan palms that is traditionally known for its high yielding and sustainable hard wood and sweet sap.

After drying the Lontar leaves, they use a compressor machine  to flatten the material.

Natural material ready to be stripped for weaving.

They use the thinner strips to start weaving into various shapes.

It's the most wonderful time of the year to give and we would like to encourage you to support our path towards a more sustainable focused life. Check out our beautiful hand woven gift boxes made by the wonderful people of Munti Gunung and know that with every purchase you can work with us towards helping others and creating hope for humanity.

The product outcome of the Munti Gunung hand weaving skills that are beautiful and practical, be it for gifts or storage.

Thanksgiving: 10 Things We Are Grateful For This Year

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we made a list to celebrate gratitude. We're in our 16th year in business and we're so blessed to be able to say, it's been an amazing journey! Here are 10 things we are grateful for this year:

1)We had the means to sponsor several animal charities 

We love nature and animals so we want to give back where we can. We got the opportunity to work with The Amanda Foundation and Orangutan Republic. If you know of any organizations or charity that we should work with, please point us to the right direction.

2) We were able to revamp our warehouse and corporate offices

We did a makeover of 1 World Sarongs Southern California location where we set up a new photo studio so we can explore our creativity and take better photos of all our collection

3) We cut out Palm Oil and we recycle within in our offices

Our mission is to assimilate the art of sustainability in our business practices and so we're trying to be more aware with our actions.

4) Family time

Where would I be without my wife and kids? Says owner Terry Sherry. We couldn't agree more. There's nothing more important than quality time with the people we love the most.

5) Faith in God and humanity

We maintain peace in our state of being and keep our core beliefs strong.

6) Great Customers both wholesale and retail

Loyal and supportive, nothing makes us happier than a happy customer! We are driven by what we do to bring happiness to all our customers. 

7) Support and synergy within 1 World Family Team 

More than just work colleagues, we are a family! We got a strong foundation of great people we work with both new and old.

8) Beautiful New Designs 

Thanks to our amazing team of artisans we work with in Bali, we launched a range of floral and colorful sarongs plus clothing. With fresh prints and patterns in our new arrivals, we take our passion for art seriously and hope to continue hand making beautiful designs inspired by Mother Nature and our travel adventures. We also launched a new line for kids sarongs, added more plus size and men sarong styles. 

9) We redesigned our e-store and launched our new website

That's right, we finally got a makeover after a long time and it was a big step for us! We needed to take it slow and made sure we worked out the kinks so we can continue to keep our customers happy. One of the common feedback from our customers when they shop with us at 1 World Sarongs is that they wanted better features and categorization for all our products so they can browse at ease. You can now have a great shopping experience on our updated website plus enjoy other features like product reviews and create wishlists. What else do you like about our new site?

10) Beautiful office locations in both South California and Bali

We get to work and live in two amazing destinations both California, USA and Bali, Indonesia. Living the dream!

Have you ever tried this little activity? It's great practice to remind ourselves about the simple things that matter and how important it is to be thankful in order to live a purposeful live. Through this list of gratitude, you get to take a step back and evaluate what you've accomplished for the year and continue to make the best out of the remaining days of 2016 and aspire for bigger dreams in 2017. It's an act of mindfulness to help with clarity of the mind and to allow ourselves to reconnect with the self and our surroundings. Here's what you need to do to create a 'gratitude list':

1) Free up a couple of hours and find a safe space. This could be anywhere, be it at home or at a park or by the beach. Wherever the location may be, it's important that you feel safe where you are.

2) You will need a paper and pen, maybe a diary or journal. Avoid using computers or phones, the idea is to unplug from distractions.

3) When you're ready, sit still and close your eyes. Take deep breaths and continue to breathe for 5 minutes. 

4) Once 5 minutes is up or whenever you feel at ease, open your eyes again and start writing. Every sentence should begin with - "I am thankful for........................"

5) Write from no.1 until no.10 whether you have less or more points, feel free to shorten or expand. What is key is that you continue to write without getting distracted and allow yourself to feel every memory and thought.

6) Take 30 minutes for this exercise. Take your time to write, do not force or rush the process. Once 30 minutes is up, take a step back. Then re-read your list again. You will be amazed by what you've written and you will start to think about the people in your life that you've given thanks to.

Try it out and tell us what you think! How did it feel? We would love to hear from you. Leave us a comment below.

10 Inspirational Quotes for Earth Day

Happy Earth Day, folks! If you don't know by now, Earth Day falls on April 22 this year and we fully support a movement that continues to cultivate ideas and inspire humanity to action. We believe that Earth Day is more than just a day, it's a long term commitment and the values we have should be more than just words. The challenge is to transmit thoughts into action and to remind ourselves that sustainability is more than just an idea, it is a way of life.

Our passion and love for Mother Earth is nothing new and we would like to share our 10 favorite and powerful quotes for Earth Day:

1. "Trees are Earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven." - Rabindranath Tagore


2. "The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. The earth is what we all have in common." - Wendell Berry


3. "The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it." - David Attenborough


4. "Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left." - Aldo Leopold


5. "We cannot hope to create a sustainable culture with any but sustainable souls." - Derrick Jensen


6. "There's no doomsday scheme made specifically for mankind, only higher agenda and priority than human race preservation." - Toba Beta


7. "Having the right priorities in a wrong world will humble you with a journey that only love can sustain." - Bryant McGill


8. "No one is an environmentalist by birth. It is only your path, your life, your travels that awaken you". - Yann Arthus-Bertrand


9. "Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations." - Earl Nightingale


10. "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed." - Mahatma Gandhi

What are some of your favorite quotes?

Love,

1 World Family

A Mission Statement Focused on Sustainability

Happy New Year! 1 World Sarongs is 15 years old this year! We are proud to say, in 2013 and 2014 we had a healthy increase in our business, we introduced many new products successfully and our customers continue to praise us for our great service and the value we provide to them. We believe that it's a good practice to look back at where we have been and where we are going.

We have been thinking about our mission of creating sustainable businesses. We strongly believe that together with our combined ideas, energy and actions - we can have a much greater effect on our mission! Every day we ask ourselves - How do we be Earth friendly and people friendly and have fun doing it?

Our mission statement is to create a sustainable business by focusing on these points:

• Be gentle on earth - what is our impact/ footprint on our planet? 
• Utilize technology - print only if necessary, so no printed catalog or printed materials – internet only
• Recycling materials - create uses for excess material
• Use less material - maximize fabric cutting
• Efficient shipping methods - sea cargo verse air cargo
• Earth Friendly - create and source products that are Earth friendly and renewable (coconut, bamboo, etc)
• Donate to charities such as Union of Concerned Scientist, The Amazon Foundation, American Red Cross and the Rotary and Oceana, etc.
• Create a product that benefits a certain cause
• People Friendly
• Fair wages / Fair trade
• Healthy working environments
• Support educational programs
• Give back to the community by getting involved with causes that help local communities 
• Get involved with beach clean-ups
• Art Friendly - music, dance
• Supporting and respecting cultural traditions - Create and source handmade items like batik, embroidery, beading, tie dye, fringing, hand screen printing, hand dyed etc. 

So let's think about:

1.    How do we contribute to the solution of creating a better world and yet maintain and increase our living standard?

2.    What are the problems and solutions?

3.    How do we create value that is long lasting?

4.    How do we create relationships that have meaning and provide growth and value?

5.    How do we make it better for all that are involved?

6.    Who has a thought, idea or suggestion on how to accomplish our mission?

As we once heard, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. We truly believe we can make a big difference together. All ideas, thoughts and comments are very much appreciated! We're always happy to hear from you and so you can drop us an email.

Thanks for reading!

With love & peace,

1 World Family